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To: Raymond Duray who wrote (182)	2/19/2001 2:43:53 AM
From: hobo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51716

Other than that, life's uncertain. Therefore, eat dessert first. Ha ! in view of all the uncertainty, I'll start with Port, and follow with Champagne... Just like Napoleon: In victory, you deserve champagne. In defeat, you need it. And since it's economics we talk about, then we should follow the advice of an economist: My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne. — John Maynard Keynes And by the looks of this... US sees Chapter 11 revival By Andrew Hill in New York Published: February 19 2001 02:12GMT \| Last Updated: February 19 2001 02:31GMT Chapter 11 is back in vogue. In the last few weeks, well-known US names such as Trans World Airlines, Bridge Information Systems, the business news provider, and Loews Cineplex, one of the biggest US movie theatre operators, have filed for bankruptcy protection. The filings are part of a wave of bankruptcies triggered by an economic slowdown which has exposed operational weaknesses and punished heavily indebted corporations. If the economy continues to weaken, and the high-yield bond market - which provides an escape hatch for troubled companies seeking funds - shuts down, as it did towards the end of last year, then experts believe these numbers could increase. "There are a lot of companies out there that were either depending on refinancing or on divestment strategies," says Donald Bernstein of Davis Polk & Wardwell, the law firm. markets.ft.com They may have to celebrate with a 6 pack of Bud. -gg-

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (182)	2/19/2001 10:35:09 AM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51716

I haven't been following the California situation real closely, but I heard a bit in the news about some of the auditing being done now. One of the big 2 utilities (the southern one, not PGE) had done the typical holding company maneuver where under deregulation, it had split into distribution and generation companies, both apparently still under the same ownership/control. The distribution company was of course showing big losses and claimed to be on the verge of bankruptcy. Lo and behold, the huge profits of the generating arm just happened to almost exactly cancel out the huge losses of the distribution arm. I don't know how deregulation happened in Cal. , but I know how it worked in my home state. The deregulation legislation was for the most part written by lobbyists for the utilities being deregulated, and I expect it was done pretty much the same way there, just on a large scale. I predict somebody's going to walk away with a boatload of money at taxpayer expense in California. -Win.