The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

Ergen Errata Charlie Sorry

1. Charlie Both Dishes It Out and Takes It

Remember last month when we told you how dumb Charlie Ergen was acting?

Well, this week we found someone new to agree with us: Charlie Ergen.

As we at the Five Dumbest Things Research Lab reported a month ago, Ergen behaved egregiously on a late-March conference call with analysts and investors regarding fourth-quarter results for 2003.

For some incomprehensible reason, Ergen -- CEO of EchoStar Communications (DISH Quote), operator of the Dish Network satellite TV service -- refused to answer a simple, commonplace question: What was the price at which EchoStar repurchased its stock in the most recent quarter?

Though this figure is based on publicly available information, and though companies have been answering this question for decades, Ergen grumpily clammed up -- much to the surprise of the respected EchoStar shareholder who asked the question, Wall Street veteran Leon Cooperman.

Odd and inexplicable, we thought. We pressed the company on Ergen's apparent rudeness, but EchoStar remained publicly unapologetic.

Until Thursday. That's when, on the company's first-quarter conference call, an analyst made a joke about how he wasn't going to ask any question about the price at which EchoStar bought back its stock this quarter. ...