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Strategies & Market Trends : Ask Vendit Off-Topic Questions -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Vendit™ who wrote (1093)	8/21/2001 7:00:10 AM
From: sandintoes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8752

Going up, for a change, would be good, but everyone I hear is saying 25 basis points is already built in, so there will be little or no effect on the market. Did you see this? The check is in the mail, huh? Mellon Laying Off 106 Workers Over Missing Tax Returns PITTSBURGH — Mellon Bank is laying off 106 workers and shutting down its Internal Revenue Service processing division because it found hundreds of federal tax returns were hidden and destroyed. The move comes as the U.S. Treasury Department investigates the disappearance of about 1,800 returns and tax payment checks sent to a Mellon lock box. The problem affects only Northeastern filers who owed money on their 2000 tax returns and mailed them to Pittsburgh. An undisclosed number of those being laid off were fired for cause after an internal investigation linked them to the missing returns, according to a memo employees received Friday from Chairman and Chief Executive Martin McGuinn. The other laid off employees will be given first priority as other jobs open at the bank, Mellon officials said. The fired workers had a "gross disregard for our shared values" and failed "to follow well-established corporate policies," McGuinn's memo said. The bank found "no evidence of check fraud or identity theft, or that any taxpayer information has been otherwise released or used improperly," the memo said. The memo didn't explain why the returns were allegedly hidden or destroyed, nor where they are now.

To: Vendit™ who wrote (1093)	8/21/2001 8:28:10 AM
From: Jill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8752

Just wanted to say hi. Nice chart & comments. I can't really focus on the market too much right now as I'm under a deadline, and sad to be back in NYC! Speaking of superhiking, or no superhiking: The world's first full satellite survey of global forest cover has revealed mankind is likely to have destroyed more tree cover than thought. It suggests many countries have over-estimated the amount of forests they have left. The findings will worry environmental groups because the forests not only help regulate the atmosphere but provide homes for many of the world's most endangered species. The satellite survey was organised by the United Nations Environment Programme Unep. Unep believes conservation efforts should now be concentrated on 15 countries which together have more than 80% of the world's most important forests. Klaus Topfer, Unep's executive director, said this wouldn't prevent another decade of deforestation but would keep it to a minimum. The figures have surprised nations including Canada which had estimated 45% of its land was forested - the survey has showed it is closer to 37%. In one series of satellite images taken since 1975 the Rondonia region of Brazil is seen to become deforested around a forest road in a fishbone pattern. Just 15 countries account for more than 80% of the 7 billion acres of closed forest in the world. Russia is the most heavily forested country followed by Canada, Brazil, the US, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, India, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

To: Vendit™ who wrote (1093)	8/21/2001 8:30:32 AM
From: Jill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 8752

Also, Slate's summary this a.m. of some news we ought to find interesting: 1) The top story in the WSJ's front-page business news box is that in an amendment to its annual report supported by its auditor, Excite At Home Corp., which is controlled by and considered crucial to AT&T, warned that it may not survive. The company faces delisting from Nasdaq because its share price is below a $1, and its S & P rating has dropped to triple-C. The paper explains that one big problem is waning demand for its online advertising inventory. 2)The WSJ runs a front-page primer on the way in which corporations have increasingly redefined what they mean by "earnings" when they report them. "Earnings" should mean and have for much of financial history meant, the story explains, "according to generally accepted accounting principles," but more recently and especially with the advent of Internet stocks, companies started hiding the ball. The story is accompanied by a listing of seven widely used terms that allow companies to fog their financials. One inference from this terminological vogue the Journal draws: With earnings defined correctly, the stock market actually has a much higher price-to-earnings ratio than is generally thought, suggesting that it "is further from recovery than many suppose."