Scott Adams, Skeptical Investor

Last month Jim Gust admired the poke Scott Adams took, in his Dilbert strip, at that hoary investment concept, diversification. Barron's feature on Adams reports that the episode, published last December 13, was one of the most popular in the strip's history.

If your investment adviser put you into Enron, you probably don't love investment advisers. Neither does Adams as quoted by Barrons:

"Most of the investments I made in individual stocks went bad because managements were lying. They are the source of the information for the markets." His conclusion: "It is even dumber to pay an expert to talk to the liar for you and charge you 1% of your portfolio."