Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Final Frontier - Online Remote Trading -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LPS5 who wrote (10063)	4/28/2002 11:58:09 AM
From: KymarFye	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12617

"I'm not exactly sure what the basis is for this case. Salespeople not actually believing in a product they're being paid to sell?" If your implicit point is all that the financial world has left to say for itself, then we've seen only the beginning of its descent both in public esteem and in "real" terms, and the bear market's vicious circle - a lack of faith and a lack of returns feeding each other - may remain unbreakable for a very long time to come. At some point, if the middle class no longer sees its interests advanced by the stock market and the financial system more generally, and begins instead to suspect and ever more easily to believe the opposite, then the old anti-business, anti-corporate, anti-financier, class warfare politics of bygone eras may not be so difficult to revive after all. As for the specific issue, I'm no lawyer, but some monomaniacally suicidal attorney general could probably make the behavior of Merril and its siblings, in legitimizing and profiting from the great parabolic fraud, look a lot like racketeering if they were so disposed. The whole thing amounts to a massive interstate and international boiler room operation scaled up to the billions or, if you choose to attach the entire hit on the stock market and the economy, and on all the leetle peeple who stand behind those grand abstractions, the trillions. I heard someone comment that it was somehow comforting to learn that "the analysts," among others, were merely corrupt rather than incompetent. I suspect there was plenty of both - yet another aspect of the New Economy that wasn't new at all. Machiavelli had the whole debacle nailed a few centuries ago: "Men are so slow-witted and give themselves so easily to the desires of the moment that he who will deceive will always find a willing victim."

To: LPS5 who wrote (10063)	4/28/2002 6:49:48 PM
From: Dan Duchardt	Respond to of 12617

LPS5, I've been doing a bit of research on another issue and have come across almost universal settlements of this type where the defendent neither admits of denies, and just pays and accepts restrictions on future activity. Your agument supporting these settlements are satisfying and I generally agree that the alternatives are not all that attractive. I can think of numerous cases where tials have resulted in outrageous awards far in excess of resonable compensation or penalty, most of which are eventually overturned or never paid anyway. Then again, I'm not exactly sure what the basis is for this case. Salespeople not actually believing in a product they're being paid to sell? This, however, I think is another matter. When I go to buy the used car, I know I am dealing with somebody who makes his living from the sale. I have reason to think the product being represented is being represented in the best possible light, but I still expect a warranty and recourse if the product does not live up to what was being represented. I would never buy a used car "as-is". The "salespeople" at Merrill Lynch, and other firms disavow that title. Instead you get a stuff like this: Start With A Financial Professional Merrill Lynch Financial Consultants are highly trained to help you achieve your personal financial goals. They are skilled professionals who can work with you to develop sound investment strategies suited to your individual needs. When you combine the expertise of a Merrill Lynch Financial Consultant with the capabilities of Merrill Lynch OnLine - our online service that provides 24-hour access to your portfolio - you form a uniquely effective partnership. and services like this: Get Research, News & Real-time Quotes Merrill Lynch OnLine provides research on any company Merrill Lynch follows, including fundamental research information on equities, investment opinion and earnings estimate changes, investment overviews, and our weekly "Focus 1" stock selections. Focus 1 stocks represent timely investment values chosen from Merrill Lynch's BUY (1) rated stocks. Each weekly selection will consider Merrill Lynch's current economic, investment strategy, and market analysis or be based on unusual fundamental and/or investment developments. And we all know about the Chinese wall between the various segments of the firm. If we want to put this kind of promotion on the same level as other salespeople and sales activities, then I want the same warranty I get with other products I buy. How about a 90-day warranty that says "if you take my advice and you lose money we will cover all your losses for 90 days", or maybe even the recourse you have with any other sales deal you are solicited with that permits you to get out of any contract within three days at no cost and no penalty. Maybe when the broker calls with the next hot stock I can tell him to go ahead and buy it, and if it's up in three days I'll send him the money. If not he can keep it himself. <ggg> Dan