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To: MythMan who wrote (196052)	10/8/2002 9:26:51 AM
From: orkrious	Respond to of 436258

Cramer actually wrote a decent piece Still Wading Through an Ethics Cesspool By James J. Cramer 10/08/2002 09:12 AM EDT Someone better get serious real soon about business ethics because people are getting sick to their stomachs about how corrupt the stock market still is. The disconnect between people like Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio, or Schering-Plough's (SGP:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) Richard Kogan, or William Harrison at J.P. Morgan (JPM:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) and the public is, quite simply, alarming. Oxley has long been owned by the accountant industry, and is showing his true colors again. He's trying to get an accounting-friendly hack on the new standards board instead of the incredibly well-qualified John Biggs, one of the most outspoken shareholder advocates, but hardly a firebrand. It is an embarrassment and shows that Oxley, who has his name on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, figures that enough time has passed for him to begin to work against the individual investor and in favor of the accounting profession again. That's been his mantra; he's back in action. It revolts me. Richard Kogan seems to think Regulation FD is a toothless joke. Why else would he go to Putnam when he had a scheduled analyst meeting a few days later? Are we supposed to believe he said nothing to them about the profit warning he was going to issue? Did he just talk about the collapse of the Yankees with Putnam, or why the Patriots won't repeat in the Super Bowl? Give me a break. Let's see who sold those 7 million shares of Schering-Plough "in the hole." Let's see if Harvey Pitt believes in FD the way Arthur Levitt did. William Harrison had his man on the Financial Accounting Standards Board block an important marked-to-market, instead of marked-to-model, reform that would have given us a much truer picture of how bad things really are at J.P. Morgan. We learned that in today's enterprising Heard on the Street column in The Wall Street Journal. How revolting is that? These people have no idea of the fire they are playing with. The individual investor is getting his statement for the disastrous third quarter. He knows he's taking a beating and he doesn't know if it is because of cyclical earnings concerns or because the market is so darned crooked that it stinks to high heaven. Sometimes, when I read the paper, I don't know either. Executives and politicians take the market far too much for granted. They figure the public, those chumps, will keep pumping in the money into the market, no matter what happens. They couldn't be more wrong. One look at the decline in Stillwell Financial (SV:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis), or the shuttering of Mutual Funds magazine, or the slow-motion collapse of Munder or the meager volume in the market tells you that the hatred for stocks is growing palpable. The public feels totally abused by the Kogans and the Oxleys and the Harrisons. Put simply, if some of the grown-ups in corporations don't start exhibiting signs of respect for the individual investor either in admitting that research is phony-baloney or adhering to Regulation FD or demanding that accounting standards be upheld, there won't be a market worth investing in. After a summer of purging of sins, we are right back in the same old stinking cesspool. Doesn't anyone out there realize how fragile things are right now? Doesn't anyone recognize how we are about to take out levels that spell almost a total repeal of the late '90s bull market? What a tragedy this is all becoming. Because of my radio show, I am in contact with hundreds of Americans a week about what's going on in the markets. They are fed up. They know the game was rigged. They were hoping the rigging was at last going to stop. They're dreaming. Accountants, brokers, bankers -- all are anxious to revert to the status quo as soon as possible. But it can't happen without wrecking what's left of the market. At this pace though, Dow 6800 looks more and more likely, and if the Kogans, Oxleys and Harrisons keep getting their ways, can Dow 5000 be that far away?

To: MythMan who wrote (196052)	10/8/2002 9:44:54 AM
From: Terry Maloney	Respond to of 436258

No, probably not. But what most people miss is that cold nights make for warm women. <g>

To: MythMan who wrote (196052)	10/8/2002 10:12:28 AM
From: reaper	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 436258

"Everyone is happier because the Yankees lost," the Rally Monkey said. "The economy is in the toilet, our CEOs are crooks, our 401Ks are worthless and we're heading to war -- but at least the Yankees got knocked out of the postseason. It gives everyone hope." msn.espn.go.com Rally Monkey also hates Jeter: "Personally," he said, "Rally Monkey was tired of seeing Derek Jeter most of all. Fox has shown so many close-ups of him and his parents the past couple years that Rally Monkey thought they must have been the cast of 'Malcolm in the Middle.' Cheers