You have no idea what you are talking about Chaz.
Says the expert in all matters. Bwahahahahahaha.
The Swiss, and much of western Europe are way ahead of us in terms of energy deregulation.
Maybe, maybe not, I'll confess ignorance on that one. The Swiss are popular among "right to bear arms" types, but my understanding is that their militia is quite well regulated, along with everything else in the pristine mountain citadel of neutrality.
And, of course, all of the first world, and Western Europe in particular, tends to be much more into government interference with business than the U.S., and more into the much dreaded social welfare programs that conservatives and libertarians find so risable too. Only other first-worldish country without national health care is South Africa, and when the U.S. unpaid "family leave" thing came up, when you looked elsewhere it was hard to find another developed country that didn't mandate paid leave at least twice as long as the 6 weeks unpaid that the nefarious U.S. government horrendously required "overregulated" U.S. businesses to offer.
As for valuations of regulated and unregulated industries, that's so broad, the twisty Mind of Reg(TM) could take it anywhere. Personally, I'd like to know, factually, how the $30-80 billion in stock options MSFT employees currently hold would allow them to take the company private. If those options actually existed, of course.
Thirty billion dollars of options will allow the employees to by the entire company for one. . . (from 17352 here)
How would you like to factually square that with the numbers recently posted from Forbes? I will demonstrate again that I don't know what I 'm talking about with a couple more numbers.
These companies have option allocations greater than 25% of their shares outstanding.
Microsoft Total options allocation: 44.83% 1996-97 grant rate* 4.45%
(*Percent of weighted average shares outstanding on a fully
diluted basis.)
(from forbes.com )
So, at the recent grant rate, $30 billion is only 3 years or so worth, and the total outstanding is $90 billion or so. How and when are the employees going to buy the entire company? Enquiring minds want to know!
Cheers, Dan.
(apologies to all for the flaming liberal asides, despite my Shirley Temple idealism I'm as cynical about politics as the next guy. I'm just a little more cynical about Bill and co. taking us where we want to go.) |
