In Need of Reinvention, Anthony Weiner Turns to Henry Blodget

Slate in 2003 took on a new columnist to cover the Martha Stewart trial. The writer, Henry Blodget, was already fairly well known as a Wall Street analyst and a cheerleader for the dot-com boom. Most famously, Blodget predicted in 1998 that Amazon, then a brand-new public company, would hit $400 within a year, which it did.

By the time Blodget moved on to Slate, his image on Wall Street was tarnished thanks to a probe by then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The investigation revealed that Blodget had publicly talked up stocks that he had privately disparaged in emails. In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Blodget with civil securities fraud. He settled for $4 million and agreed to a lifetime ban from the securities industry. Read more...