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To: James Strauss who wrote (11998)	12/18/2002 7:52:53 AM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13094

RE: our b/k talk>Conseco Becomes 3rd-Largest U.S. Bankruptcy Wednesday December 18, 6:51 am ET By Bill Rigby NEW YORK (Reuters) - Conseco Inc., struggling under more than $6 billion in debt, became the U.S.'s third-largest bankruptcy on Wednesday, as the insurance and loan firm sought protection from creditors while it sells its finance unit and tries to restructure itself. ADVERTISEMENT The move, which analysts and rating agencies have expected for some time, comes after months of negotiations between Conseco and its banks and bondholders, triggered by defaults on its loans and bond payments earlier this year. Conseco's filing, made in bankruptcy court in Chicago, is the third largest in U.S. history. Conseco has assets of $52.2 billion, according to recent financial reports, putting the firm behind only WorldCom Inc. and Enron Corp. The bankruptcy filings cover Conseco Inc. -- the holding company -- and its troubled loan operation Conseco Finance and some related units. Conseco's insurance units, under the close watch of state insurance regulators, are not affected. The bankruptcy and restructuring plan has not yet been agreed by all Conseco creditors, a company spokesman told Reuters, and has yet to be finalized. MASSIVE DEBTS The company, based in Carmel, Indiana, has struggled since it piled up massive debts in a 1990s acquisition binge under flamboyant founder and Chief Executive Stephen Hilbert, capped by a disastrous purchase of loan firm Green Tree Financial, now called Conseco Finance, in 1998. That deal exposed Conseco to a mountain of bad loans -- largely on mobile homes and manufactured housing -- which worsened as the economy turned sour. In the late 1990s Conseco piled on more debt and made problems for itself by aggressively accounting for gains from securitizing its loans. It later abandoned that practice, under pressure from investors, which led to a restatement of several years' profits, which shook Wall Street's faith in Conseco, and eventually led to Hilbert quitting the firm he built in 2000. Gary Wendt, former boss of General Electric's GE Capital unit, was brought in two-and-a-half years ago to rescue the firm, picking up a $45 million signing bonus, but he quit as chief executive in October, admitting his turnaround plan had failed. By then, the firm was laboring under more than $6 billion in bank and bond debt, with less money coming in from insurance and loan operations to keep up repayments, and facing huge write-downs in its investment portfolio. Conseco's stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in the summer, and its shares last sold for less than four cents each in over-the-counter trading on Monday. Conseco bonds due in 2004 last traded around seven cents on the dollar. SELLING LOAN UNIT As part of the restructuring effort, Conseco said it would sell Conseco Finance, the source of so many of its problems, to a group of investors, in an effort to pay down debts. It did not say how much it would receive for the sale. The unit was originally put up for sale by Hilbert in 2000. The buyer, CFN Investment Holdings -- a joint venture between Fortress Investment Group, J.C. Flowers & Co. and Cerberus Capital Management -- will buy the loan unit's assets and operations at a price equal to the unit's secured debt when the deal closes, Conseco said. "We believe we have achieved a major step toward what we set out to do in August (when talks with creditors began)," Conseco Chief Executive William Shea said, in a statement. No further details of the bankruptcy were available in filings submitted to the United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois.

To: James Strauss who wrote (11998)	12/18/2002 7:54:33 AM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13094

RE: our gold/dollar talk>Gold Hits Five-Year High as Dollar Reels LONDON (Reuters) - Gold hit its highest level in more than 5-1/2 years Tuesday as weakness in the dollar, rallying oil prices and fears of a war with Iraq opened the gates for a flood of fund money into the safe-haven asset. Spot gold hit a high of $341.25 an ounce, its firmest level for the metal since June 1997 and a 1.5 percent gain from closing levels in New York Monday. "The slump in the dollar has caused gold to spike upwards to $340 overnight, with the sharp jump in oil prices and heightened fears of a war with Iraq adding to the bullish sentiment," said Lawrence Eagles, analyst at commodities trader GNI. "Historically when gold performs like this it tends to keep going," Eagles said. Gold prices have climbed 23 percent in a ragged and halting rally throughout 2002, spurred by a cocktail of geopolitical tensions from the Middle east to Kashmir and a slump in global equity markets and the dollar. "There are those ready to buy on dips and push it higher for the time being," said Martin Mayne, associate director, NM Rothschild & Sons (Australia) in Sydney. "But it does concern me that we are not seeing any physical demand," Mayne said. "All the demand that we are seeing is speculative interest." (Just like tech stocks, what a total dumb-ass) A move by leading gold miners to reduce their forward sales of the metal to take advantage of rising spot prices rather than hedge their sales in forward markets has also helped gold's rally this year. "Even with a very large net long fund position ... further price gains cannot be ruled out in the current environment," said Barclays Capital. Gold's latest jump was triggered by a weakening of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which added to fears over higher oil prices and a growing list of political tensions. The dollar tumbled to new three-year lows against the euro and slid on the yen as the market tightened its focus on the prospects of war with Iraq after the United States found fault with Baghdad's weapons declaration.