Are The Fortunes Of Supplier And Customer Related? DUH!

Implications: Last week Bank Of America released one of their research studies having to do with regional Mall REITS (as well as office REITS). With great fan fare they announced their findings which were then picked up by many financial trade publications who treated it as significant  and newsworthy.  Basically it revealed that there is a very close correlation between suppliers, (regional malls & office buildings) and customers, (retailers who rent space in malls and businesses who rent space in office buildings).  WOW! It occurred to me that if this is a newsworthy finding, something is dreadfully wrong with our system of finding worthwhile topics to research and finding reasonably intelligent executives to direct research efforts! If we don't change our ways we may find several other com bank research department wasting their time and money developing elaborate research studies to test the notion of what, if any, correlation might exist between the weather and shopping habits of consumers! 

Analysis: After spending almost 40 years directing research efforts in retail environments, I was astounded by just how ridiculous  this B of A study really is and what it says about the current state of the quality and significance of bank research in general.  

Not only is it specious and unnecessary, it is downright silly! From the beginning of time, even the dumbest of business people knew instinctively that if they were a supplier ,manufacturer or seller of anything, their fortunes were inextricably intertwined with that of their customers or buyers.

This is not the first bank research report I have found to be either silly or totally wrong! My advice to readers of GLG News is to be very careful with your time and efforts when reading bank research.