Contrarian Indicator Bill Miller is Bullish

05/07/09 Baltimore, Maryland Today’s contrarian indicator: Bill Miller is bullish and buying shares of banks and credit card companies.

The Legg Mason “legend,” based right here in Baltimore, famous for beating the S&P 500 15 years in a row, is now quite infamous… for buying Fannie Mae, AIG, Bear Stearns, WaMu and Wachovia all the way to the bottom.

This morning, all we can do is cringe. Miller is setting himself up as the historical proxy for the mainstream disaster of the day.

The current “bull market,” reasons Mr. Miller, grasping at straws, is behaving “much more like the rally that ended the 1973-1974 bear market or the one that began off the bottom in 1982 or even that which erupted in March 2003 from the last debt deflation scare.”

Banks, he believes, “have the biggest potential to outperform.” Wells Fargo, Capital One and American Express are his favorite speculations. This guy will chase anything. In response, we’d like to announce our latest additions to the short watch list: Wells Fargo, Capital One and American Express.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch thinks “the worst is over” too. “There are emerging signs in some of our businesses that the days of precipitous declines are done,” said the man behind Fox yesterday, “and revenues are beginning to look healthier.”

Still, News Corp. is forecasting a 30% drop in profits in 2009.

Addison Wiggin

Addison Wiggin is the editorial director of The Daily Reckoning, and executive publisher of Agora Financial, an independent financial research firm based in Baltimore, Maryland. His second editions of international best-sellers Financial Reckoning Day Fallout and The New Empire of Debt, which he co-authored with Bill Bonner, were updated in 2009. His third book, The Demise of the Dollar… and Why it’s Even Better for Your Investments was updated in 2008, the same year he wrote I.O.U.S.A. Read more about Wiggin’s best-selling books here. 



Wiggin is the executive producer and co-writer of I.O.U.S.A. an acclaimed documentary nominated for the Grand Jury prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and the 2009 Critics Choice Award and shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award. Wiggin is a three-time New York Times best-selling author whose work has been recognized by The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, Worth, The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as major network news programs. 

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