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To: Robert Rose who wrote (99728)	4/10/2000 7:39:00 PM
From: GST	Respond to of 164684

Robert <Apparently it's been sitting in bank accounts bearing negative interest rates) At the risk of pointing out the obvious -- banks don't stack piles of money in vaults -- did you really not know who has been financing the US current account deficit -- now running at $400 billion dollars per year????? Did you really not know??? Did you not know what that means to our dollar???? To our cost structure??? To our interest rates????

To: Robert Rose who wrote (99728)	4/10/2000 8:41:00 PM
From: Eric Wells	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Apparently it's been sitting in bank accounts bearing negative interest rates. Robert - would you consider investing billions of dollars in a system that helps to fund a large number of highly speculative businesses with questionable business models and with insiders and VCs that cash out years before the businesses can even hope to make a profit - would you consider this to be a good use of money? Certainly, capital is required to expand technology and to improve our way of life. But when standards become lax and the speculative fervor runs high, as in our current market, a lot of what passes for investment is little more than gambling - in such an environment, less money is funneled toward good ideas, and more ends up evaporating (or ending up in the pockets of those lucky enough to sell first). If anything, this market has made us all stupid. No one has to work any longer to try to figure out which are the companies with the good ideas, with the good balance sheets, with the strong business models that will lead to profitability. Instead, we put on our blinders and we let the likes of Blodgett, Meeker and Bock pick the companies for us. We sit around and draw charts knowing that there are millions of others drawing charts - and that all of us drawing charts will act in a similar way based on the same chart patterns - buy stocks that are going up, sell stocks that are going down. No real intelligence needed for this exercise - just follow the crowd. When the dust settles, we'll have an internet, and we'll have companies that do business on the internet. But I'm also convinced that we will have a lot of people who will be a whole lot poorer than they were before this whole thing started (a few will be much, much wealthier). You see, I am convinced that a lot of what is happening in our markets today has more to do with a transfer of wealth than with anything related to investing in businesses and ideas that will actually improve our society and lead to greater efficiencies. -Eric