Tony Dye

I was very sad to learn today that Tony Dye, former chief investment officer of Phillips and Drew died on Monday at the early age of 59. Tony was known as Doctor Doom for his bearish forecasts for stock prices during times of financial euphoria and ultimately he was proved right with the collapse of the dot-com boom in the spring of 2000. The boys at my economics society at school thought so much of him that they invited him to speak to the Keynes Society a couple of years ago. Tony delighted us on that occasion with a really nicely judged talk and by using some chapters of Keynes’ General Theory to illustrate some of the dangers of the herd mentality of people working in the financial markets. Tony Dye was a natural contrarian who believed passionately in the lessons of history and the power of the idea that values revert back to historic means. His obituary in the Telegraph provides a neat quote from Keynes which Tony was fond of using “worldy wisdom teaches that it is better to fail conventionally than it is to succeed unconventionally.” Rest in peace.