The Maven: Dude, That's Crazy!

But as an investor who has to analyze the analysts, you should pause when someone starts expressing anger at anyone who proffers an opinion, even if they're doing it for pay. Or at those who try to prove his opinion wrong by 15 seconds of stock market action. The markets, after all, are a collection of opinions: thousands of numbers that stand for tens of thousands of opinions.

Most important: True anger -- or "I told you so" pettiness -- signals the sort of emotional involvement that can lead to bad judgment. I see this everywhere from comments on Greenspan to some reader reactions. If you are cheerleading a thought, you are lost in it. Remember the Godfather creed, "It's only business."

Of course, in that case, the creed justified any manner of depravity. But here it speaks to a more emotionless gaze that allows for flexible thought.

And I just want to end the week with something more than a "Nod of Approval." The Business Press Maven is going to genuflect in the general direction of Donald Tomnitz, the CEO of homebuilder DR Horton(DHI) for saying on a conference call, "I don't want to be too sophisticated, but 2007 is going to suck." Here is my reaction from "Columnist Conversation" just afterward, when I was lost in the glow of this wonderful moment in the stock market's relationship to words. Here's hoping there is more to come. It would be good for investors:

"I just got off the plane in Kansas (of all places) when I caught the instantly famous "sucks," replayed on CNBC. I had to look for a hot spot on the high wheat plains in order to say: I hope this is a defining moment in how management communicates to investors.

That is not an open call for crude talk. But in the past generation, nearly every word uttered by management has become scrubbed by the flaks. F-l-a-c-k-s? Let's keep it simple and call them flakes. The flakes might think they are working their black magic well, but when you systematize how people talk, you create distance. And distance between management and investors is not what is wanted--or needed. By either side.

But if a guy starts telling me his business "sucks"? Well, you know I'm not hot on housing -- but DR Horton has built an instant base of trust. My ears are going to perk everytime Mr. T talks. And when he says "doesn't suck" I just might take him more seriously, at least more seriously than one of those robot CEOs, operated by a flake."

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints