Money-Rx Blog

Barry L. Ritholtz is Chief Market Strategist for Ritholtz Research & Analytics, specializing in the analysis of macroeconomic trends and the capital markets. His scribblings can also be found on TheStreet.com (Apprenticed Investor), RGEMonitor and Seeking Alpha.

Perhaps his most important asset, given his strong interest in digital media and technology, is his blog The Big Picture (http://bigpicture.typepad.com/). Whether it is due to the exclusive and prolific financial analysis available on his blog, or due to Barry Ritholtz's ability to see the funny side of any situation, the end result is a hugely popular and well trafficed financial blog with over 15 million visitors ( nearly 1.2 million visitors in August 2007 - Which is not surprising ), and counting.

Barry Ritholtz is a frequent guest on television, with weekly appearances on Kudlow & Company, and he can often be found on Bloomberg and PBS and is frequently quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and other print media.

He is on Burst.com's Board of Directors and was a market strategist for the New York based investment bank Maxim Group from 2002 until 2006, at which time Ritholtz Research was launched. In May 2007, he became the CEO and Director of Equity Research at FusionIQ. In September 2007, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of MicroIslet, a biotechnology company engaged in research on diabetes. Additionally, he is the Chief Investment Officer at Ritholtz Capital Partners, a New York hedge fund and teaches at New York University's School of Continuing & Professional Studies. Barry Ritholtz and his wife, Wendy, are residents of Long Island, New York.

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Editor's Note: I contacted Mr. Ritholtz to get his opinion on the likelihood of another technology bubble, considering the slew of columns last week which seemed to indicate that dotcom investors have forgotten the lessons of 2000. Between my question and his answer, however, Microsoft kicked in with a 23% jump in profits and beat Google in a bidding war to win a $240 million stake in Facebook. Which effectively put Microsoft stock on boosters. Which meant my question about a bubble was moot, at least for now. However it may be, published below is a comment from Barry Ritholtz with his thoughts on another dotcom bubble.

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I do not see a technology bubble as the biggest challenge facing the markets.

I have been focusing on the following issues: Inflation, Housing, the slowing US consumer, the strength overseas, the ongoing credit crunch, and the cyclical top of the profit cycle.

There's lots of over-priced tech stocks, and if the economy does slow considerably, there will be price corrections (As Texas Instruments warned Monday night, and a slew of others did on Tues and Weds).

But 2007 is not 2000. Sure, Google is pricey, as is Apple. but each of their P/Es have come down over the past X quarters, and they are growing very rapidly. And when Microsoft is posting growth and earnings numbers like they did, its hard to say this is a bubble.

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That was Barry L. Ritholtz, Chief Market Strategist for Ritholtz Research & Analytics and author of The Big Picture blog.

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References: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/cv/2006/02/curriculum_vita.html
http://seekingalpha.com/author/barry-ritholtz
http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=127424