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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BGR who wrote (68709)	10/6/1999 3:55:00 PM
From: pater tenebrarum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

BGR, it is exactly the ivory tower nonsense preached by the likes of Merton , Black and Scholes that almost brought the global financial system to it's knees last year via LTCM. Ballmer on the other hand is right in the thick of the business he passed judgement on. i can tell you exactly what his observations are based on: during a time when corporate profits in the tech sector roughly doubled, stock prices have increased ten-fold. it doesn't take a genius to conclude that something is seriously out of whack. it just so happens that Ballmer's voice carries a bit of authority given his position. note that WS quickly began to invent on all sorts of funny theories to explain away what Ballmer had said. no wonder, if you conclude that he simply spoke his mind, you would have to get a bit wary of a Nasdaq sporting a p/e of 158. hb

To: BGR who wrote (68709)	10/6/1999 4:11:00 PM
From: Cynic 2005	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

<<I never knew that Ballmer was an well known and respected financial guru. >> You know now! <<But then, I know so little anyway.>> You got that one right! <<The 90's stock market, by virtue of its low transaction costs and vastly improved information access, is indeed more efficient than the markets of yesterdecades. >> So is losing money. <<This, please note, is by definition. Efficient markets don't preclude volatility. In fact, as Black noted, a perfectly efficient market is perfectly chaotic, where new information flow (which is chaotic) is incorporated w/o delay in asset prices. >> I thought IIT-M alumni are good at BS. I now know IIT-KGP beats us hands down! -g- Sorry, i happened to read that note in its entirity and couldn't resist replying to it!