Gurus/Experts/Writers who have been discredited--add your own.

[raccoon]

Sometimes in the popular media, you hear of some self-styled "expert," only to find out later on that they aren't an expert at all.

At least, it's better to know it.

Also please post those who've written supposedly non-fiction books, and later on it becomes public that it was total fiction.


(1) John Gray

Author of all those Venus and Mars books.

“His books are published under the moniker of "John Gray, Ph.D.", even though he does not have a PhD (see education Credentials below).”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gray_%28U.S._author%29


(2) Beardstown Ladies

The Beardstown Ladies were a group of older women who formed an investment club , in Beardstown, Illinois, USA .<1>

Founded in 1983, the group achieved fame for their stock market acumen, claiming investment returns of more than 23.4% per year from their inception through 1994. They received considerable attention in national media outlets, and authored a best-selling book, The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide, following it up with four more books.<1>
In 1995, personal finance counselor and best-selling author (Personal Finance for Dummies, Investing for Dummies) Eric Tyson wrote an article in the San Francisco Chronicle exposing the fact that this club did not have any documentation or audit to back up their claimed investment returns.”
In 1998, an article in Chicago magazine proved that the group's stated returns had included the new investments made by its members, and that when computed in conventional fashion, their annual rate of return for 1984–1993 was actually 9.1%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beardstown_ladies


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[KoKo]

1. I didn't know that about the Beardstown Ladies. I wonder when publishers

stopped checking author's credentials.... I guess when they became "total profit entities" after all the buyouts of the old publishers by McCorporate Media.