Going forward feel free to substitute Jacoby for Wienkes, even though he is no longer relevant....
I think it's easy to target Wienkes as performing a hatchet job on the stock. He works for Goldman Sachs, and we all know their reputation. He is excessively bearish in comparison to his peers. His downgrades are generally devastating to the share price. (more on that later)
However, conspiracy theories and faceless figures standing in the shadows aside its probably a lot more simplistic than all of that. Yes, yes he is associated with Goldman. Yes, yes they have terrestrial radio relationships. But I think the uncertainty, volatility, and investor fatigue have given him a canvas to paint on.
With no real results which which an investor can hang his hat on, when someone comes out with a negative report, who's to say he is wrong? How can you point to Wienkes and say, "This guy is off his rocker.". You really can't, because so far everything he has predicted has come true. And with investors who have seen their money shrink year after year, why wouldn't you listen to someone like him? It's just human nature, when you are getting your ass handed to you, you aren't going to be all bright eyed and optomisitic.
This isn't a grand investor conspiracy, its just some egomanic deusche bag who enjoys the warmth of the spotlight, and who hasn't been knocked off his high horse yet. He won a couple hundred dollars in scratch tickets and now he thinks he can dictate his own luck.