The importance of questioning success


There's been some pretty idiotic commentary on the departure of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER) CEO Stanley O'Neal, starting with the USA Today's assertion that it was somehow a setback for African American CEOs. But James B. Stewart had the most trenchant analysis of the O'Neal's fall that I've seen with his column (subscription required) in today's Wall Street Journal:

... What was Merrill's board asking Mr. O'Neal when Merrill was earning record profits on the outsize success of its huge investment in subprime mortgages and related collateralized debt and loan obligations?

I know it's hard to ask tough questions in the face of success. It's not a strategy for winning popularity contests. But it's essential in the worlds of business and investing.

Exactly. Nearly every great business blow-up in history might have been prevented -- or at least had its impact limited -- if people had asked probing questions when everything was going well. Remember when analysts lamented that Enron's earnings were a black box? Jeff Skilling even agreed with that assessment! But hey! It was fine because the stock was going up! It wasn't until after the company imploded that people decided to question the wisdom of investing in a company when you have literally no idea how it makes money.

Read Stewart's column, and forward it to everyone you know who invests. There's probably some deeper metaphor in it about life, but I shan't bore you.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 06:35 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329132915109 ms.