To: yard_man who wrote (137484 ) 12/6/2001 5:06:23 PM From: SOROS Read Replies (4) | Respond to I have to laugh. The greed for stock market money and the total participation by the government, the brokers, and the media in propping up what they see as the ONLY THING holding America together is incredible. Listen to the spin -- "Real Americans spend money", "If we keep spending, terror can't harm our economy", Be patriotic and buy stock". Why don't they come right out and say it -- "We're going to manipulate everything possible until you only have TWO choices. Put your money under your mattress or send it to the stock market, preferably through a 'professional' fund manager, because we're going to make sure you can't get jack-squat anywhere else. And if we see that not enough money is making its way to the markets, we'll kill treasuries, bonds, savings. Why we'll even cut taxes (did I say that?) and turn up the printing press to make up for it so we can keep running on borrowed or even non-existent 'cash'. An IOU is as good as money in the bank. We'll make greed acceptable by cloaking it in patriotism. We'll rewrite economic law if we have to. We'll change laws for companies to make them seem profitable. We'll do whatever it takes. We've already succeeded. Americans now perceive a company losing money as better than one making money as long as they 'beat' the numbers we help them make up. Company A's earnings for 8 quarters are .01, .03, .08, .11, .15, .17, .22, .29 while company B's are -27.52, -25.96, -29.33, -33.33, -32.90, -28.44, -34.88, -44.99. Now tell me -- which company's stock price has performed better over these quarters? All you have to know is what did the 'street' expect each quarter. If company A 'missed' the number a few times, they got slaughtered. If company B 'beat' the number, investors are told, 'company B DID NOT LOSE as much as we expected!' Their stock will go up, up, up! Welcome to the new America, where stock markets always go up, and everyone deserves it. I believe in the market. I believe in me. Oh, yea, and god bless America."
