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To: James Thompson who wrote (17542)	4/7/2000 5:48:00 PM
From: AmericanVoter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19700

Good afternoon Jim, well..., considering another possible rate increase in May... any rally now will be short lived.. but hey, what do I know...? lets wait and see. best regards amein

To: James Thompson who wrote (17542)	4/7/2000 10:40:00 PM
From: adsorb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19700

Jim, I think you're a little right of Hizonner, I mean East, but do you think the poor fellow (after all, he got robbed by Paul Allen's CHTR unless he took the short view) could take us into the heights of ALTA. The guy has friends at MSDW and may want to trade the short view again for the long.... I would offer to trade my MSGI; they say it's nothing but up from here to BAJA vista.... By Andrew Quinn SAN FRANCISCO, April 7 (Reuters) - Mayor Willie Brown -- famed for a wheeler-dealer image -- snagged eight sizzling IPO stock offerings last year with the help of a brokerage firm that has done business with the city, according to news reports that have some San Franciscans envious and others fuming. Brown, one of the most powerful political operators in California, was able to tap a potential profit bonanza from companies' initial public offerings of stock only dreamed about by most casual investors. Officials and analysts said there was nothing illegal about Brown's participation in so many IPOs, and no evidence that he has performed favors for companies in which he holds stock. But some experts said Brown clearly received preferential treatment from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. (NYSE:MWD) in being put in such a good position to profit from the increase in stock value experienced by some companies that sell shares to investors for the first time. Officials have not stated exactly how much money the San Francisco mayor made with the IPOs. After a series of financial revelations this week, the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday quoted Brown as saying he was given "remnants" of the frenzied IPO market by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. "It's a lot of fun but it drives you crazy," Brown said of his market forays. Officials in Brown's office did not return telephone calls seeking comment on Friday while a spokesman for the brokerage firm appeared surprised that Brown got so many IPOs. The mayor's office denied any link between the IPO offers and the city's choice of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in a 1997 deal to underwrite $100 million in financing for a new football stadium. That project has since been put on hold and the bonds were never sold. Nevertheless, the stock market score looked likely to create a fresh image problem for Brown, a legendary power broker who fought off charges of cronyism to win a bruising election battle for a second term last year. "The heck with the 'old economy' and 'the new economy.' I want a piece of the Willie economy," San Francisco Examiner columnist Rob Morse wrote. Brown's success with IPOs, many of which have zoomed in value as part of the market's fever for Internet and technology issues, came to light this week when he filed a financial disclosure statement with the city's Ethics Commission. MOST INVESTORS WOULD BE ENVIOUS That statement outlined in broad terms a success with getting in on IPO deals that would make most investors swoon. While brokers generally parcel out IPO offers stingily and only to their most valuable clients, Brown managed to pick up stocks in eight IPO companies in November and December. Brown's statement put the value of his stock portfolio at somewhere between $97,000 and $970,000 -- leading to newspaper headlines that the mayor may have made close to $1 million in the market. The newspapers also quoted Brown's spokeswoman as saying he racked up his stock market successes while "playing around on the Internet" and day trading in his spare time. Officials later said the mayor's IPO earnings were considerably smaller, although they did not give a specific value. They also revealed that, in fact, Brown had been put into the IPOs by a broker at Morgan Stanley. Among the investments, according to a statement released by Brown's office, was a $20,000 purchase of 400 United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE:UPS) shares, which subsequently climbed 30 percent in value on the company's first day of trading. Brown also pocketed 100 shares of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) at $19 per share, and then watched that stock jump 20 percent in value on its first day. He also spent $3,000 on 100 shares of Hewlett-Packard spin-off Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A), an issue that soared by about 40 percent in its market debut. OVERALL STOCK STRATEGY HAS LUKEWARM SUCCESS Despite the IPO boon, Brown's overall stock strategy was hardly a huge success. He said that between October and December of last year he invested some $275,000 in the market and earned $11,000 in profits -- an underwhelming 4.4 percent gain for a period in which the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index soared by about 28 percent. But questions remained over why a politically powerful mayor was given entree at the ground level into IPOs denied to almost everybody else. "He clearly got favorable treatment, and I consider it extremely bad form for any investment banker to give favorable allocation of an IPO to any politician," said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida who studies the mechanics of initial public offerings of stock. Morgan Stanley spokesman Ray O'Rourke said on Friday that the brokerage house allocates IPO shares to its various offices for distribution, which is done through individual brokers. "We're looking into how the allocation decisions were made (with respect to Brown)," O'Rourke said. "We're doing our own sort of review of what was done out there." Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service