Today we kick off a new series that highlights the dumbest things that smart people in the financial industry have to say.

Many famous and not-so-famous financial pundits are going to get skewered in this series. To them I say, don't forget that this series is intended to entertain and educate investors about the humorous and ironic pronouncements that are everywhere in the financial media.

It's all meant in the spirit of good fun, and I do not intend to imply that these pundits are themselves dumb. In fact, I will even post some things that I have said in the past that turned out to be dumb. We all say dumb things, so let's just enjoy the ride and perhaps learn a few things along the way that will make us smarter investors.

Today's dumb & dumber award goes to the headline writers at Barron's. This is a serious publication, and I've been a loyal subscriber for 30 years. But when you hire someone to create headlines, you're sometimes going to get dumb ones like this.

The Dow Rises 63 Points Because the Fed Minutes Came and Went

This isn't the first time that the Barron's headline writers have done this. They've been writing headlines with the word "Because" for a long time. The market went up today "because" ... or the market went down today "because" ...  Really?

I admit that there are rare days when a big market move can be pinned on a specific event, like 9/11 or the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But give me a break. Assigning a cause - effect link for the daily movement in the stock market is dumb and dumber.

I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this series, and I invite you to send me your favorites. Email me through the website at info@zeninvestor.org

I promise that I will post some of my own dumb statements in a future article.