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To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (85417)	11/1/2000 4:32:09 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 152472

Profound point (?) on low probability of G* bankruptcy -- during the interview on CNBC with Bernie Schwartz (Tuesday 10/31/00, at around 7:35 A.M. (Eastern time)) ... In addition to being dazzled by how ***** smart I though Bernie was (I am NOT being facetious; this guy is definitely one extremely clever guy) ... I was prodded into remembering what was going on in the dark days of 1991 - 1992, regarding both Citicorp and McDonnell Douglas (which was, at that time, still an independent, publicly-traded corporation) (since that time -- MD has been acquired by Boeing). Various very smart (in my opinion) people were publicly saying : these two companies are absolutely, positively showing signs of being ***** BANKRUPT. Neither went bankrupt. MUCH later, we learned that the head of Citicorp (John Reed at the time, I believe), literally went to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and told them (I am paraphrasing) : "To the best of my knowledge of Citicorp's assets and liabilities, and ability to obtain funding, I believe that Citicorp is right now, more or less, ... bankrupt. How would you like us to proceed ?" The Federal Reserve decided that Citicorp belonged to that elite group of financial institutions that are "too big to fail;" and things were kept quiet, and slowly worked out. SAME (similar) story with McDonnell Douglas ! We (much later) learned that the Defense Department felt that the continued existence of MD was VERY important. The Defense Department caused things to happen that just do NOT happen if your neighborhood (small) grocery store is having a cash flow squeeze. As both Citicorp and MD muddled through this period, and their stocks recovered (astoundingly so, in the case of Citicorp), I remember thinking : "So, I guess those people who I thought were really, really smart; who had dissected the balance sheets, and projected cash flows, and funding ability (or lack of funding ability) on these two companies ... I guess they were just dead wrong." THEN (as I have already stated), within a few years we all learn that the "it's going down the tubes" - crowd WERE indeed exactly correct; it was just that these two corporations received special treatment. BIG QUESTION -- does Globalstar fit into this category ? I sure think it does. Jon.