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

To: mishedlo who wrote (215548)	1/18/2003 2:34:19 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (7) \| Respond to of 436258

Barron's Mini Review: Great issue and worth the $3.50 except the clerk forgot to charge me again, so it's even better free. <g> 1. Abelson is terrorizing the bulls. First he pounds on the concept that Republicans now want to run huge deficits while Democrats are for a balanced budget. He says Republicans win on this one hand's down, with deficits larger than expected for a much longer period of time than expected. Abelson creams the tech stocks and harps back to Fred Hickey saying computer sales suck and valuations are too high. I found it odd he repeated this so soon. But his small piece was sort of "ain't you jerks paying any attention at all?" <g> A guy from what used to be Grant's says that pension liabilities are only the tip of the iceberg. There are also OPEBs, which are basically medical insurance costs for retirees. Corporations are underfunded $320 billion on pensions. Only underfunded $317 billion on these Opec, er, Opeb dudes. BTW, the federal deficit this year will be a manageable $300 billion. I didn't get the memo that said that $300 billion is now the figure known as chump change. My secretary is toast for losing that one. <G> He quotes CFO Magazine as saying that if corporations used pension fund accounting techniques for their operations, they would go to prison. I think they're wrong and ARE using all the shady techniques for both. 2. A bullish piece on Prescription Benefit Managers. I am sooooo long these. Thank you, Barron's. 3. Surprise of 2003. Usually moronic and caustic cub reporter Jon Jon Laing, who has slimed everything bearish for years, writes the cover story, The Debt Bomb. And does a good job. That's the biggest part of the surprise. If you are in any market, you have to read this thing. Though he gives a depression a low probability, 30-40%, he can't find his usual bullish spin to pull out the story at the end. The kid may be wising up. Very late. But, hey, Jon Jon, welcome to what the rest of us have known for years. Do some more reading and we'll buy you a drink. 4. The Roundtable jackasses. The good part was Felix Zulauf calling for a 1000% rise in gold stock prices over the next 10 years. Why do I find that easier to swallow than our firm's guest speaker's 100,000 Dow prediction? 5. Great mailbag letter from Herbert Burr. He's got the talking heads and Wall Street Touts down pat and gives Dubya's dividend scam short shrift. Good poop, and helps soak up the vomit from watching Faux News Saturday Morning clown lineup. Geez, the market would have been at 25,000 Dow by now if these bullish twits were ever right. Everything in business is great and only Iraq is holding us back. Don't they actually see what's happening to earnings and debt? It isn't a secret.