‘Barron’s Roundtable’ has a pair of Jacks but needs an ace for TV success
It's already overachieving.
"Barron's Roundtable," a new show that airs multiple times over the weekend on Fox Business channel, is mostly a preview of the latest print version of Barron's. But thanks to its snappy pace overseen by Jack Otter, readers/investors/viewers are bound to get a little bit more than they bargained for.
Here's an obvious conundrum: If the concept is simply writers promoting their print articles, then 1) it seems viewers wouldn't need to buy the publication, and/or 2) print readers would have no need to watch the program for summaries of articles they still plan to read in full, unless the writers are adding non-print information on the TV show, in which case you're back to No. 1.
The show, sponsored by Invesco QQQ, is chock full of commercial time and clocks in at barely 21 minutes. Even so, Otter makes the most of limited time, distributing questions and follow-ups to panelists like a seasoned TV pro and unleashing an array of information.
Quickly emerging as the show's go-to color commentator is Jack Hough. (Otter in his introductions helpfully solves a curiosity for Barron's readers, pronouncing Hough's last name as "Howe.") Hough's takes on middle-aged life clashing with pop culture typically appear near the front of the Barron's print edition. Hough can write, and his sense of humor carries over into television. He's not going to be Joaquin Phoenix at the Golden Globes (or even Bob Hope at the Oscars), but Hough can deliver a line. What he probably needs is a regular foil, something like the original "Kudlow & Cramer" pairing on CNBC.
Every panelist on the show has ably held her/his own. On Friday (1/3/20), Otter and Hough shared the set with Ben Levisohn (labeled Barron's market editor on TV), Carleton English (labeled Barron's reporter) and Andrew Bary (labeled Barron's associate editor).
Otter called the Middle East a "3-D chess match" and then sent us to Wikipedia with this reference: "The U.S. history there, uh, we didn't like a prime minister, we overthrew him in Iran and, you know, that sowed the seeds for ayatollahs. Uh, we got rid of Saddam, and then that caused problems we didn't foresee. So, things could happen there if it gets ugly."
Otter's right: In 1953, Western interests backed a coup of Iran's prime minister. (Supporting the "shah," who wasn't exactly Steve Jobs in terms of brainpower, for the next 25 years or so was also a bit of a problem.)
Levisohn said a "full-blown war" is "not gonna be good for Iran," so he thinks tensions won't get out of hand and are "probably not gonna be terrible for the markets."
Hough said the market only cares about, "Do interest rates stay on the floor."
The show starts with a "top 3" of current events and/or prominent subjects in the print edition. Iran came up; so did Wall Street/venture capital's apparently waning support of money-losing models. Hough called the WeWork debacle the "tipping point" of that phenomenon.
English, whose presence probably caused most viewers to think Julia Louis-Dreyfus was on the show, pointed out new tailwinds in the housing industry, such as millennial purchases, but that there are differences in growth in the market depending on price point.
Otter aired an earlier interview with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, the best part of which was the discussion of immigration. Aside from that, it was unclear exactly what Zoom does or how it is different from competitors.
Andrew Bary previewed his new article on finding yield. Bary started off with his top picks, apparently pipeline operators, and pointed out something important: the K-1 element to the master limited partnerships. Bary did mention an ETF, although there was no discussion about whether a "broad, global" ETF designed to produce income is better than owning a single company's stock or bond.
Levisohn impressively questioned whether there's a risk of some oil company junk bonds, which might yield 8-10%, going bust. Bary indicated Diamond Offshore, Range Resources and Southwestern Energy have "strong enough financials and good enough prospects." Bary also recommended REITs, but two frequent income topics, the telecoms and utilities, were not mentioned prominently in the segment. Bary didn't seem too interested in utilities, stating they "are not the greatest bet right now."
Hough talked up DIN and Applebee's, the subject of his print column.
Others who have appeared on the show include Beverly Goodman, Barron's investing editor, and Al Root, Barron's senior writer.
There is much that is NOT on the program. There is no stock ticker or any kind of information ticker at the bottom of the screen; nowhere do screen graphics even show the Dow or S&P 500. Unlike the legendary "Wall Street Week" of Louis Rukeyser, there is no assessment of, nor commentary on, the previous week's stock market results, despite the fact such recaps, in column or news form, are a staple of the print Barron's.
These are challenging times for print, unfortunately. The upside is that there are fewer and fewer print competitors for Barron's space (think of eroding daily newspaper stock listings, for example). Curiously, the Barron's TV show is an attempt to enter a far more crowded sector. The guess is that the Barron's TV show is just a dip into the multimedia world to see what happens. Maybe print sales will rise because of it, or maybe print sales won't rise but the show will prove popular. Doing the latter requires stumbling into a popular feature. Barron's will always be more Alan Abelson than Jim Cramer.
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