Gongol.com, a long-time favorite of mine, is out with its latest EconDirectory, and I'm happy to report that Financial Armageddon has risen to 13th place (from 16th place in July) with more than 200,000 page views per month.
| Rank | Site | Page Views | Pageview Ratio | ...making this the ___ of business/econ websites: | |
| 1 | Calculated Risk | 67375 | 100.00% | USA Today | |
| 2 | Big Picture | 62161 | 92.26% | Wall Street Journal | |
| 3 | Michael Shedlock | 51743 | 76.80% | New York Times | |
| 4 | Marginal Revolution | 30512 | 45.29% | New York Times | |
| 5 | Naked Capitalism | 25883 | 38.42% | Los Angeles Times | |
| 6 | Gregory Mankiw | 17803 | 26.42% | Chicago Tribune | |
| 7 | Carl Futia | 14766 | 21.92% | Houston Chronicle | |
| 8 | Economist's View | 11143 | 16.54% | Long Island Newsday | |
| 9 | Baseline Scenario | 10876 | 16.14% | Arizona Republic | |
| 10 | VoxEU | 9857 | 14.63% | Boston Globe | |
| 11 | Tax Prof | 8466 | 12.57% | Portland Oregonian | |
| 12 | European Tribune | 7043 | 10.45% | Kansas City Star | |
| 13 | Financial Armageddon | 6797 | 10.09% | San Jose Mercury-News | |
| 14 | Half Sigma | 6303 | 9.36% | Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel | |
| 15 | Gongol | 5764 | 8.56% | Columbus Dispatch |
The fact that Financial Armageddon has become increasingly popular of late is yet another sign that we have reached a major bottom in the market and the economy as a whole. It seems that investors and the public in general flock to read books and websites that are pessimistic at market bottoms just as they embraced books calling for Dow 30,000 at the market top. A book by Robert Prechter calling for a worldwide depression shot to the top of the best seller list in early 2003, right at the bottom of the last market downturn. While Prechter is a great market technician, the fact that his book became so popular at that time turned out to be a great contrary indicator. I may have to add website views such as these to the indicator list.
Posted by: Allan | August 07, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Then again, perhaps it has something to do with the quality of the content?
Bear in mind, of course, that if you had gone long the S&P 500 index as a "contrarian play" when the site was launched in late 2006 or my book of the same name was published in March 2007, you would be underwater by about 30%.
Posted by: Michael Panzner | August 07, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Having purchased the book Financial Armageddon early on, I would be the first to admit that there were many astute observations. The website provides interesting information as well. What I pointed out was the usefulness of the popularity of such products and not necessarily the their launch date. More importantly, it is the long term performance of financial advisors that is important, not just a particular market call. Our economy seems to be standing at a crossroad at this time and it will be interesting to see who has made the correct evaluation.
Posted by: Allan | August 07, 2009 at 12:11 PM