Analysts: Worth Their Weight in Water?

At first I thought Bill Fleckenstein called sell-side analysts "dead fish" as a term of endearment, since I figured, who doesn't like dead fish, right? Especially when they've been sitting around a while; mmm hmmm...

Well, now there's this gotta-see graphic by SocGen's James Montier posted on the FT Alphaville blog that shows how analyst forecasts have actually been very clearly lagging actual earnings for, oh, the last two decades or so.

I respect Fleck, and have always loved fish--in fact I was sorta kinda named after dried salted cod--though now know why I've never really cared for analysts. But, importantly, if analysts are dead fish, do they float? Because then they'd be witches...