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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (3128)	9/20/2002 6:26:40 PM
From: Fred Levine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

Cary-- >> It is not "dumb" to slash capital expenditures when there is overcapacity.<< Cary, I had two examples in mind about capex. One is our "invulnerable" steel industry. In the late '60's-early 70's they were so content with tried and proven manufacturing that they had the stuffing knocked out of them by countries without either iron or coal, In fact, my wife brought 10 shares of Bethlehem Steel into our marriage in 1965 and her folks were mad when I sold them. Bethlehem recently filed for bankrupcy. Next is the US auto industry which is still reeling from arrogance (read Halberstam's book, "The Reckoning"). Certainly some capex can be safely deferred, e.g., new corporate headquarters, but those that lead to higher productivity are deferred at peril, We'll see if Gottfried is right that INTC's productivity advantage will hurt others, particularly AMD. AMAT, EMC and INTC have spent waiting for the next uptick in the economy. I own them all and am keeping my bloomers on. fred