HP just announced that Dunn will, in fact, be replaced in January. The story is a perfect illustration of the change of fortunes many bull market heroes experience when the trend switches from up to down. As the latest issue of The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast explains, bear markets tend to paint targets on the back of those who thrived in the preceding bull phase. Obviously, as publicly traded entities, stock corporations are the primary beneficiaries of a rise, so their leaders tend to nosedive when stocks do the same.
Another bear market thread that runs through this story is the decision to spy on a fellow board member to find out about a leak. As we explained here on July 5 (“The Next Big Thing: Information Access Denied,” information flows freely in bull markets: “Openness is one of the key attributes of an inclusionary environment i.e. a bull market. The free flow of information leads to open borders, open markets and wider and wider circles of social interaction and community.” A bear market, on the other hand, is an exclusionary experience in which exchanges of information become stifled, and unsavory practices like spying and censoring become more relevant and common. Back in the bull market, HP’s board probably wouldn’t have done anything about the leak, but now they are exhibiting the defensiveness of the bear market. Their effort at spying has “turned the spotlight on the shadowy world of pretexting,” the practice of impersonating someone to acquire their phone records. The “widening probe” surrounding HP’s latest misadventure signals is just one more area where the free flow of information is being stopped up.
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