The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

Indeed, no doubt he said something like, "iVillage had reported a loss of approximately $31.9 million on an Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization ("EBITDA") basis (pro forma as if the June 2001 acquisition of Women.com Networks, Inc. had occurred on January 1, 2001) in fiscal year 2001, excluding certain one-time and non-cash charges, and that, through the first three quarters of fiscal year 2002, iVillage reported an EBITDA loss of approximately $0.4 million, excluding certain one-time, restructuring and non-cash charges. For the same periods, iVillage reported a net loss of approximately $48.5 million and $26.5 million, respectively. For more details regarding these financial results, please refer to iVillage's Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2001, Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2002, and its respective press releases announcing its financial results for those periods."

Obviously, those Delaney Report people -- who didn't return a phone message we left them -- just weren't paying attention.

3. The Burgers of Calais

Little did we know that when we started writing about McDonald's (MCD Quote) Happy Meals, we'd be opening such a can of worms.

Not literally, of course.

No, we're generally referring to some ground-breaking research we published last month -- our shocking discovery that after decades of selling nutritious children's meals accompanied by a single plastic toy, McDonald's had started selling nutritious children's meals accompanied by two plastic toys. For the same price.

This two-trinket policy, we quickly decided, was evidence of the deflation that some economists say haunts our economy. Our theory was confirmed, we decided, by subsequent sightings of all-you-can-eat deals at the IHOP (IHP Quote) pancake chain.

Happy Meal Index

Unfortunately, contradictory research keeps rolling in.

First, some email from Jeff Kagan, a vice president at supply-side research firm Polyconomics. "Kind of hard to argue about deflation when gold is hovering north of $350 and the dollar is slipping into the abyss," Kagan writes. "McDonald's dropping prices is a sign of competition, not deflation. Oil is spiking, and I would argue very strongly that that is a much more important indicator of price strength than the price of a hamburger in an overly competitive marketplace."