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To: SliderOnTheBlack who wrote (51589)	9/21/1999 10:39:00 PM
From: Roebear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

Slider, Is the inventory getting low in the short store??? An article from July 7 and apparently you are the only one on this thread who had NOT read it?? Longs have not been in anxiety about this, no need to get all excited. That CFRA is not an angel of FGI judgement, take a look at their website, they have picked on a lot of other stocks, Fortune 500's and all, for accounting practices that didn't suit CFRA (or their agenda??). Note that a lot of those stocks did quite well after they were CFRA damned. Here is the URL to their website and some post excerpts dealing with that "accounting" article back in July, when it mattered: schilit.com RE: accounting by: gh109 6211 of 7418 Here are a couple of reasons why I don't think people here are spending much time on the accounting issue: 1. The source of the report is an outfit that sells a monthly report based on "Schilit's Seven Shenanigans" -give me a break! Also consider this excerpt from their website: "Short Ideas -- An important segment of CFRA's clients use our product as a source of short ideas." The accounting issue was created as much as it was discovered by a niche outfit that has a very clear purpose in mind when it writes its reports. CFRA writes negative reports that it sends out by overnight mail to its customers before the information gets to the press. In essence, they create their own bombshells and those who pay the price get advance notice. That sounds like a nifty trick for shorting, doesn't it? Just my take on CFRA, but it looks pretty sleazy to me. Take a look at their website and form your own opinion. schilit.com 2. The merger process would likely have uncovered any real problems. There are probably a few legal and accounting types taking a closer look at FGI than CFRA did. 3. The company hasn't said much, but what they have said is that this is pretty much a non-issue. Sure I have a financial interest in FGI doing well, but FGI's response sounds reasonable. See Tuesday's Sun Herald for example. sunherald.com Just a couple of thoughts. by: fgi_499 6297 of 7419 and this accounting crap is just that CRAP! As far as IR is aware, there is no SEC investigation into their accounting practices. IR faxed me the statement that FGI's, CFO, J.T. Melton Jr. released regarding the CFRA report, and everything has been made public. Here are a couple of comments from the release I find very interesting: "Friede Goldman has consistently informed it's investors that it expected it's gross margin percentages to decline as a larger portion of it's revenues is derived from new construction." "Friede Goldman has clearly disclosed that it's backlog amount included the Brazilian contract and that the contract's financing has not yet been finalized." My favorite two: "With respect to assertions about aggressive accounting practices, the CFRA analyst apparently did not understand the impact that timing of a milestone billing and payment from one or two large contracts can have on our balance sheet. For example, because the company billed and collected a major milestone payment in April, if the analyst had used the April balance sheet instead of March, he would likely have reached very different conclusions." "The CFRA's assertion that margins were positively impacted by amortization related to our Canadian acquisition again suggest a less than thorough understanding of the situation. Our accounting policy has been confirmed with our auditors who agree that our inclusion of such amortization as a reduction in costs of revenue is the appropriate treatment." There you have it folks. (I should have just typed the entire release.) Also, I asked why they didn't put out a news release defending their accounting policy and the reply was simply that FGI doesn't respond to those types of empty accusations. If anyone is interested in the entire statement, FGI will be happy to fax it to you. ************ Your position here, after admittedly not following FGI closely over the summer, after missing "the damn article" that FGI longs here had shoved in their face going on three months ago, after stating that FGI will bounce 3-5 points after a .75 - 2.5 points decline(from 11 now), after agreeing that FGI would likely do well in 2000 to 2001, is becoming increasingly tenuous. Now you say you wouldn't take it for free?? After all, that article is plainly listed on Yahoo headlines and the fact that I let my subscription lapse also did not prevent me from getting a copy of the article, back in July, when it mattered, to assess its truth. A look at CFRA assessed that for me. I am surprised your renowned research missed a very basic item like this. FGI will not shrivel up and fade away because of hyperbole or because some activist accounting watchdog doesn't like FGI's accounting, even though its ok by GAAP. BTW, I assume you know about HLX's fraud (embezzlement?) problem it reportedly, allegedly, had with some of its people?? Roebear

To: SliderOnTheBlack who wrote (51589)	9/22/1999 1:54:00 AM
From: victorw	Respond to of 95453

Slider -- I thought the 1989 A's should have been the best. Canseco in right, Dave Henderson in center, Ricky Henderson in left, Mark McGuire on 1st, Walt Weiss SS, Terry Steinbock catching, Dave Parker DH, the biggest guys ever to play on one team. And big, mean throwing Dave Stewart But tonight, 70 degrees in Seattle, 3/4 moon over the right field line in SafeCo field, train whistles every 15 minutes, ferry boats gliding west into the sunset...and the M's -=- Griffey goes deep in the 1st, Alex Rodriguez gets two dingers, Edgar Martinez goes 4/5, Brian Hunter slid so many times he had to change his uniform -- that's baseball today, and my advice to you is, don't short the Mariners in 2000, we got the young arms now to win it all. VictorW