Analyst who said to "short all banks" last April is asked to give "expert" testimony before Congress

Maybe the reason why the government does so many things wrong is because it often relies on the advice of people who don't have a clue.

Top-rated Wall Street banking analyst Mike Mayo of Calyon Securities testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission today. Mayo's observations to the Commission were the following: Banks were "on steroids." (Read here.)

Perhaps that's how he rationalizes his disastrous call to "short all the banks" that he issued back on April 6, 2009. I wrote about that call in one of my blog posts.

He's like these people who say the recovery is "phony" because government spending has been providing the demand. In their minds since it's not the private sector doing that, then somehow the output of goods and services are not real? What are they, then? Are they an illusion? Will they disappear? Is the car that somebody bought with cash from the government not really a car?

Ridiculous.

Anyway, you get much better advice here. In my post last April I told you to buy the banks when Mayo and Whitney and Whalen were all saying go short. The S&P Banking Index (BIX) has nearly doubled since then.