Venerated Voices™ Q2 2021 Rankings

by Jill Mislinski, 7/26/21

Advisor Perspectives, a leading publisher and ranked as the most-read e-newsletter for financial advisors by Erdos & Morgan “FAMOUS” Study in 2019 and 2020, has announced its Venerated Voices™ awards for commentaries published in Q2 2021. Rankings were issued in three categories (minimum of four posts annually): The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm and Author, the Top 10 Venerated Voices™ by Commentary; and the Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm and Author by Count (minimum 12 posts annually).

The first three categories require a minimum of one post quarterly and the fourth requires three or more posts.

The most popular topics in Q2 2021 among all commentaries were related to equity overvaluation and bubbles, and whether bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have any value. Leading the Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm category was Coast Capital of New York City, followed by Hussman Funds of Maryland. In third place was GMO of Boston.

Among individual commentators, the most-widely read was James Rasteh of Coast Capital. In second place was Ben Inker of GMO followed by John Hussman of Hussman Funds in third place.

The most-widely read commentary of Q2 2021, published on April 29, was Bitcoin Is An Ecological And Monetary Disaster And It Happens To Be Worth Zero by James Rasteh of Coast Capital. He described bitcoin as a disastrous attempt at currency creation that has no value. This is due to its extreme volatility, impracticality, frequency of fraudulence, and quantity of coins, according to Rasteh. Bitcoin backers often claim its usefulness as a store of value, but this is debunked in the article due to its “dubious origins” and riskiness. Lastly, Rasteh described the excessive energy required to mine bitcoin – “…it takes as much time and energy as 33,000 credit card swipes.”

Ben Inker of GMO took second place with GMO Quarterly Letter: Speculation and Investment, published May 21. The commentary began with a story about a reader who was irked by Inker’s prediction that retail investors would be left “holding the bag” when the speculative bubble bursts. He described the distinct difference between speculation and investment and reminded us that when the public is captivated by the financial markets, it is likely a sign that speculation is the culprit. Inker said that speculative episodes tend to end badly and that the “bad end” is likely to occur in the stock market.