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Pastimes : The California Energy Crisis - Information & Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (969)	9/10/2001 11:22:26 AM
From: portage	Respond to of 1715

Yeah, Sam, I've been thinking about this one for awhile, and suspect that when the sh*t really hits the fan with the economy, there will be a glaring spotlight on this. It's insane. What allows it to happen ? I'd say a combination of things : - Boards of Directors stocked with the same types of people who will all mutually benefit from this - The simple mantra of "market" that has been so drummed into peoples' heads, as if no manipulation can occur - The brief flurry of IPOs where it seemed all boats were lifted for a short time - While the wealth gets concentrated among a few, the pain of an individual issue loss when the bubble pops is spread among thousands or millions of investors, so rarely does one individual get burned by one stock to the extent that an effective backlash arises. - By the time it's over anyway, unless there was a blatant illegality, the ones who pocket the money can safely slink away to their safe harbors - it's too late for the losers. I remember when a $1 million golden parachute was an outrage, even for a CEO in a takeover who had done a decent job with the company. Not just Silicon Valley, but it seems the quickest and easiest abuses were there. Check this one out - hundreds of millions to Ariba execs and employees who never really produced anything but a hype machine. UFB. contracostatimes.com exerpt : They had good reason to cheer -- many of them had made a fortune on Ariba stock. Since the IPO, Krach had sold shares worth $167 million. Nine other co-founders and former vice presidents had sold another $895 million in stock, enough to fund Silicon Valley's largest food bank until 2090. Low-level employees also became millionaires. During 2000, Ariba's insider sales totaled more than any other U.S. public company except Microsoft and Dell.