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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (199500)	10/23/2002 8:52:22 AM
From: Earlie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Zonder: Glad to see that you are not invested in this accounting scam. Also glad to note that you are aware of some of that company's misdeeds. The big problem for all of us is that inevitably, where accounting chicanery is operant, we get to sniff out only the more visible elements of same. Sooner or later, other similar accounting "irregularities" surface which typically swamp the boat and send it to the bottom rather quickly. Witness Nortel. I was fortunate enough to have spotted some of the nonsense and warned my clients to dump it (unfortunately many thought I was insane at the time and did not do this). But when the facts started to surface, many items of which I was unaware also became visible. Not to belabor the point, but to suggest that the current PE is not expensive and at the same time agree that the "E" of that PE is based on questionable accounting and known misrepresentation doesn't make too much sense to me. With respect to IBM's downplaying if the debt risk, see my follow-on comments on their lease scene. And now that we have aired our respective views on IBM (in my case, essentially "ranted"), welcome to the "thug" thread and stick around. We need plenty of commentary from both sides of any viewpoint. I tend to get a bit "soap-boxish" when it comes to Gerstner's caper. (g) Best, Earlie