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To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (16884)	7/8/2002 3:03:57 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

An amusing sort of scam... In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, Reliant said "round trip trades" the company engaged in during 1999, 2000 and 2001 should not have been reflected in its revenues or expenses. The trades added $6.4 billion to the company's revenues during that period. Federal regulators are investigating Reliant and numerous other energy companies for the so-called round trip trades, in which electricity is bought and sold at the same quantity and price to inflate revenue and trading volume. "The personnel who effected these transactions apparently did so with the sole objective of increasing volumes," the Reliant filing said. Of course all of the dirty work was done by anonymous "personnel". Oddly, the shares are up a bit. Of course they do claim that the "errors" don't effect earnings, and the company is reporting earnings of $3.19/share over the last year. But how much credit does one give to any of their numbers now?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (16884)	7/8/2002 9:24:17 AM
From: Poet	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 21057

That is a frightening story, Laz. It's astonishing how many companies distorted their numbers and out-and-out cheated. I'm going to be interested in listening to Bush's speech on Wall Steet tomorrow. I just found this poem on Poetry Daily. It speaks to the theme of belief in God: Fiduciary the relationship between blackbird and fencepost, between the cow and its egret, the field and wildflowers overrunning the field-- so little depends upon their trust. Here, in God we trust to keep our cash and thoughts in line-- in the sky, an unexplained white line could be the first of many omens. But this is no country for omens, the line as chalky as the moon, bleak and useless as the moon now rising like a breath of cold air . . . There is gullibility in the air. Randall Mann Poetry