"then brokers would have little means to sell the stock"
IMO, we are in the midst of a "winnowing-out" process, where brokers (and CEOs) who act solely as stock salesmen, steadily lose credibility.
Through the Bubble, stock salesmen (brokers, analysts, CEOs, etc.) were very creative, coming up with false proxies for earnings. It was OK if a company didn't have earnings growth, as long as they had growth in "earnings" (earnings before taxes, interest, employee option compensation, write-offs of failed investments, etc., etc.). Or growth in sales. Or market share. Or eyeballs. Or subscribers. Or page hits. Anything that was going up, got used as a ProfitProxy.
The aftermath of this Bubble is so painful, investors won't forget the lessons for a generation. They are learning to be sceptics. Unfortunately, the fact the Cisco can get away with giving away all profits to employees, and still claim to have earnings, indicates the "winnowing-out" process still has a ways to go. |
