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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (51528)	5/16/2002 2:50:48 PM
From: mt_mike	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 65232

JW, not sure how I resolve the differences in the charts. I will have to think about that. As for share buybacks, in theory I guess they are alright. If your stock is trading at a level significantly below what a company believes is fair value, then I guess a buyback makes sense. However, I agree with you that if buybacks are the best return on investment then a company is admitting there is no better place to invest those dollars and the company is through with its growth phase. In practice, you are 100% correct, it looks like companies are using them purely to manage stock price. IBM is a great example. There was an article in Trimtabs the other day which discussed IBM and stated IBM is managing its share price via buy backs. Really, buybacks allow the stock to remain artificially high and allow insiders to dump shares and/or exercise options just like Gerstner did before retirement. Buybacks are just another example of the house of cards we have built. It is going to get ugly, its not if its when. Those idiots on CNBC will never get it. I especially like how they are trying to position themselves as being tough on analysts. What a joke. When this downturn is over the only place you will see Maria B. is hooking outside the Lincoln tunnel. On another note what ever happened to Marci the economist on CNBC. I noticed today they have some new guy in her place.