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To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (59014)	1/18/2001 12:11:23 AM
From: Moominoid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

I agree with most of what you say in that post. I'm not arguing with corporate debt and bad investments being a potential major problem. I do think the US system is better structured to work its way out of these problems (like the S&L crisis and various farm crises) than systems like Japan. As I've said maybe the inflation figures are understated. But the amount they can be understated by isn't as big as is being thrown around in the articles and some posts here or the numbers simply don't add up with obvious realities. On the other hand, I think quality adjustments are the right thing to do to compute true inflation but of course they can be done poorly and incorrectly.

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (59014)	1/18/2001 2:32:19 AM
From: Andrew G.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Heinz: I agree 100% with your argument, however..... I've come to the conclusion that there doesn't seem to be any apparent bottom to this debt issue. If there is anything new about this "New Economy" it is that corporations and consumers can take on much higher debt levels than they ever could before. There is this amazing process of carrying huge debt loads on balance sheets that are several multiples of net assets without declaring bankruptcy. I don't know where the threshold is before we declare a company or a nation a catastrophe in the making but as long as there is adequate liquidity in the system everyone goes on their merry way. Tell me, if you can, where is the threshold ? At what point does the house of cards finally collapse? I read where ETYS is flying recently on buyout rumors even though it can't pay it's suppliers. Go figure.

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (59014)	1/18/2001 10:09:57 AM
From: Earlie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Heinz: Excellent post. Any investor who is not aware of just how big and ugly the debt picture is in N. America has his head in the sand and his backside exposed to the winds (or whatever). (g) The deflationary spiral, which many pundits thought a year or two ago would never affect our western economies, has more than established a beach-head, as witnessed by the waves of nasty numbers and warnings emanating from Q4 reports. With respect to the stock market, a trip over the cliff or a grinding erosion are the only real questions IMHO. Best, Earlie