Is having a reasonable response to all that is going on.

Ben

People need to be careful about calling for too much government intervention into the private sector.  It is easy to end up with a cure that is far worse then the disease.

Make sure you are not committing a basic contradiction in your arguments.. For example, today while reading the threads I have seen many people blaming the government for not helping... And yet these same people are fighting for my 2nd Amendment rights. Lets try to remain consistent... If you ask the government for help about your stubbed toe you are likely to see them get a hammer and smash the other toe as well...  Remember the Democrats are just waiting to get anything at all to champion in order to "get more votes", and this would be something right up there alley as they created the original "Capitalist Pig" bugaboo all they way back in the late 20's and early 30's....  Remember that these are the same democrats who would gladly take away your guns..

Never ever let the government make up for your own ignorance....

People love to say, "There is always a risk." remember the guys at the top don't take risks. They have the battle won before they ever enter the ballgame....

Anwyays, just wanted to add my .02 cents..

Remember check your own facts, the media outlets are used by PR guys to PUmp there own stock that they are dumping...

Ben

I'm not for Government intervention in a free market economy.  I'd be happy if some corporate execs at Andersen, Enron, and now Worldcom went to Federal prison though....ECS

Granted fraud is fraud.. And Is systematic of a larger generational philosophy which Bill Clinton exemplified in all its ugly spectacle.. And that is these people believe that, "Reality is however you spin it." They forget that reality exists and that A company is a totally real animal. It reacts to every little nuance in the private sector... These people are trying to run companies that do not and are not capable of running at a profit, they try to keep there gravy train going amid gargantuan losses and fictitious numbers and its the ultimate insanity, because you can't lie about a dollar you either got it or you aint. And pretty soon you are going to have to spend that dollar and if you aint got it then all of a sudden your JIG IS UP... And the fraud that your company has become is WRITTEN IN GREAT LARGE LETTERS IN THE SKY OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY... They can't win by lying , but these people aren't even honest with themselves....


And to me all this just Begs the Question: How good is the American Economy??? What is the real picture??? At somepoint it will be time to sweep the levinin from the house... I almost hate to see what that is going to look like..

Ben

Well said.  My personal opinion is that anyone that would lie to you or steal from you isn't worth knowing.  These people did both.  Not to me personally, but to those who invested in their companies.  Actually, indirectly, they did steal from me as the have affected the value of my investments, or potential investments.  Any real value should come back in time, but what if I need it now?

Back before the rally cries of IPO people bought stox on the reliability of the company. The plan was to buy and hold, and the companies paid something called "dividends"...try finding a company that still does this...lol
The worth of a company these days is in its paper..like baseball cards the value isnt in the assests of the company but simply confidence in the certificate itself..and is it tradeable..imo
America has lost its edge as a industrial giant...the stock market is America and international confidence in the paper dollar keeps money flowing into derivatives and bonds...
The Exchange Stabilization Fund props up this confidence and the ink is flowing and the printing presses churning out those greenbacks..
The problem is imo when the crash comes ..without the industrial base of old where will recovery come from..and where will the international money flow if the dollar is finally trashed in the consumers mind..

Don't get me wrong... My main concern is the LOUDNESS of the MEDIA in PRing companies... There are thousands of companies that silently do there business and pay there dividends and you never hear about them... The silently manufacture there motors and engines and pulleys and valves and components and they never get a moments air time...  

There are still a bunch of companies out there run by some old Task Master , that cares about his company because it was his lifes dream and he comes into work every morning and his employees take there positions and go to work, and they are never mentioned... And he reports his profits of say 25 cents a share and the stock that is mainly held by the employees goes ex-dividend and they get this small check in the mail that is the payment of that dividend or it goes back into the company....

When I think of the perfect company, I think of not only the old Industrial Giants such as US STEEL, or General Electric, or IBM,etc.. But also those companies that are much smaller but just as profitable...  If it is being HYPED then apparently it won't stand just by itself and so they have to create a money game around the company and everything is smoke and mirrors...

Ben

Das true!

Today's CEOs get paid millions to gobble up smaller companies, book sales that haven't happened yet, take credit for receivables that have not yet been collected, move real assets to  off the books 'joint ventures', and inflate the true value of their assets.

I'm starting to think the best investments may well be the old fashioned companies that actually bend metal and make things.