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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (116090)	3/27/2002 8:31:03 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Jim, I was trying to keep this discussion at least partially related to QUALCOMM, but you have some misconceptions. Regarding silver and its use in photographic material, the advent of digital photography is eating away at the demand for conventional film and photo paper. It is no longer true that silver demand goes up steadily at 4 or 5 percent. In fact, it is estimated that in only two or three years, the only conventional cameras that will be sold will be the throw away variety. The rest will be digital. Film sales are already down below last year, and it isn't all due to the recession. When U.S. interest rates go above those elsewhere in the world (like in Japan), there is an incentive to convert yen to dollars to take advantage of the higher rates available here. That's one reason there is so little new investment in Japanese securities--you can make more money in the U.S. market. Only rarely has gold been a better investment than stocks. One of the recent occasions was around 1980, when interest rates were in double digits and stocks for the most part were stagnant. Gold briefly reached $800 an ounce, but not for long. In 1987, Newmont stunned the gold bugs by selling forward its gold production at $400 per ounce in order to defeat a takeover attempt by T. Boone Pickens. Gold just kept sinking and never reached even $400 since that time. Frankly, investing in gold is of interest only to those who don't recognize the value of genius to invent new products. Art