What does Muammar Gaddafi have to do with equity research?

by David Hattery

OK, admittedly, coal isn’t the most exciting sector in the world—all the more reason for my excitement when I recently booked Marc Levin, BB&T Capital Markets, who covers the coal sector to appear on CNBC. You see, coal is a crucial ingredient in the economic growth of China, and not just from an electricity standpoint, it is necessary to make steel as well. But I digress. I turned on the TV just before Marc's scheduled appearance and was shocked to see this on the screen:

Breaking News!!! President Obama talking about Libya! Doesn’t he know my client is scheduled to be on CNBC in two minutes?

Well Mr. President must have gotten the memo (or maybe a secret service agent whispered something in his ear), because he finished up his remarks, and CNBC returned to normal programming. A few minutes behind schedule, but the compelling story of coal was too important to bump. CNBC went live with Marc Levin to talk about the coal sector.

Ahhh, what a relief!