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To: Chip McVickar who wrote (1935)	7/7/1999 11:00:00 AM
From: Henry Volquardsen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3536

I missed the New Yorker article. The financial firms don't have the same leverage as LTCM. They may have individual trading desks that are heavily levered but the firms as a whole don't come close. I've worked for a couple of pretty aggressive derivative shops and we never came close. Not that there weren't temptations to try <g>. Henry

To: Chip McVickar who wrote (1935)	7/7/1999 3:26:00 PM
From: Daniel Chisholm	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3536

...makes a strong case suggesting our investment firms especially the Insurance, banking and brokerage houses are as highly leveraged as LTCM A few months ago I became a first-time buyer of life insurance. Skeptical bast*** that I am, I went to the home page of a local insurance company and pulled up their financial statements. This was the first time I had ever looked at a financial institution's statements. Even though I had heard that they were different (vs. an industrial company), I must admit to being shocked. In many ways the balance sheet resembled the sort of nearly-bankrupt companies that I've been shorting quite successfully (the smell of unpredictable off-balance sheet liabilities hung thick in the air), and the income and cash flow statements looked a lot like those of scam companies before the jig is up (highly leveraged earnings, of uncertain quality and durability to my inexperienced and conservative eye). Go figure. Anyhow, in the end I ended up buying a life insurance policy from this company -- I've been told by that they are a sound, sensible, well-run insurance company. I must admit that I am not confident that I will ever figure out how to do DD on a bank, brokerage or insurance company. - Daniel