To: J.T. who wrote (8876 ) 10/9/2001 7:25:08 PM From: High-Tech East Respond to of 19219 ... excerpts from Bill Fleckenstein's, The Market Wrap" tonight ... in reviewing and quoting a column by Michael Belkin ... "We continue to be quite cautious about the near term and especially the fourth quarter. We expect the slowdown in the U.S. economy to continue and last longer than previously expected," said David Viniar, Chief Financial Officer of Goldman Sachs (Financial Times, September 27). "Take a stand. Stand up! Time to buy stocks ... what should matter most to equity investors is the vigor of the subsequent recovery in 2002 and the long-term U.S. growth trends," said Abby Joseph Cohen, chief investment strategist of Goldman Sachs (Reuters, October 5). (The) CFO of a public company is accountable for making spurious forecasts that don't pan out. Meanwhile, (Abby Joseph) Cohen is spouting the same old garbage about economic recovery and market undervaluation that has been erroneous for almost two years. No accountability. She even contradicts Goldman's own CFO. "Wall Street strategists (Cohen, Galvin, Kerschner, Applegate, etc.) crawled out of the woodwork like cockroaches two weeks ago, proclaiming how cheap stock prices are and how great are the prospects for the market, economy and profits once this 'little recession' passes. Their enthusiasm and shrill proclamations are only matched by their inaccuracy. These jokers have been dead wrong about the market and economy for 18 months. There appears to be no code of ethics or accountability for Wall Street strategists -- anything goes. Forward earnings estimates? Dream them up. Current earnings results don't match your previous forecasts? Raise the future ones further. Recession arrived while you forecast a continued boom? Forecast a recovery next year. Recovery doesn't arrive then? So what, everyone else was wrong, too."