Confessions of a Sociopath

This is the title of an apparently genuine memoir - but the economists have found the weak spot.

Prospero at the Economist judges it about right, taking a light tone. "I have learned that it is important always to have a catalogue of at least five personal stories of varying length in order to avoid the impulse to shoehorn unrelated titbits into existing conversations". The 'varying length' bit is the key, I feel. Note also this: "There is deceit, presumably: [the author] claims to have averaged a 9.5% stock market return since 2004."

Tyler Cowen gets a bit carried away, but, like Prospero, he is unimpressed with the outstanding investment returns the author claims to have made.

So I went to the author's blog and found this. Pretty unconvincing. The only clever thing about this stock purchase was the timing - and there is no explanation for how she managed that.