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To: Softechie who wrote (6857)3/15/2003 11:04:01 AM
From: LTK007  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 11447
 
Buffet goes Ballistic on Derivatives
<<WHAT WORRIES WARREN
Avoiding a 'Mega-Catastrophe'
Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction. The dangers are now latent--but they could be lethal.

FORTUNE
Monday, March 3, 2003
By Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett has been writing annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders since 1965. In the early years he followed a conventional format, but after serving on the SEC Advisory Board for Corporate Disclosure in 1976, he decided--as he puts it--to "get serious" about communicating with his shareholders.

He made another important decision in 1977: to recruit FORTUNE's Carol Loomis, a friend and long-term Berkshire shareholder, to be his editor. Buffett says she has been invaluable--"very friendly, very helpful, and very tough."

In this year's letter to shareholders Buffett tells of the difficulties of exiting the derivatives business he inherited in his 1998 purchase of General Re. He also concludes that the explosion in derivatives contracts may have created serious systemic risks. Loomis suggested to Buffett that he publish his section on derivatives in FORTUNE, and what follows is excerpted from the 2002 Berkshire Hathaway annual report, which will appear at berkshirehathaway.com on March 8.>> whole article and most all else in his last annual newsletter. fortune.com
fortune.com



To: Softechie who wrote (6857)3/15/2003 11:25:00 AM
From: westpacific  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 11447
 
We are getting "safer" by the minute.

from:
urbansurvival.com

------------------------------------------------------
Big Brother is "ready when you are":

A distinguished colleague, who happens to describe himself as a "simple country attorney" sends in this worrisome note tonight:

As some of you may be aware Delta is the first airline that is going to be instituting the new Background Screening process before allowing you to fly, first in selected cities, and then nationwide .... Including:

Pulling your credit report
Investigating your banking history
Running a criminal background report
(make sure those parking and speeding tickets are paid ... being late in paying them, at least in Ohio, can get an arrest warrant issued)

To top it off, after doing all this stuff Delta will be keeping the data ON FILE for 50 years .....
AND it can share it with anybody it wants, or any government agency or PD that asks gets it
(nice end run around getting credit files on people, the normal credit report laws will NOT apply in keeping that data secret .. you remember that cop in that small town you pissed off last year when you beat the speeding ticket? ... guess whattttt.... he can call up your data from Delta under this program, even if you are not even a resident and never go near the place).

Anyway, if you are as pissed as me about this entire .... the following website may be worth a look.

Big brother is coming fast.
George Orwell would be proud.



To: Softechie who wrote (6857)3/15/2003 7:37:21 PM
From: LTK007  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 11447
 
Ran search techie, don't have that file.
Have sent you an Adobe file "The Armageddon Hedge" via e-mail---great read.
One quote From Fleckenstein "Bubbles can be prevented but NOT cured"
also "Bear markets decline on the slope of hope until they FINALLY give up"
One of my ideas here is presented and that being there is TOO little data on Great Bubbles such as NO PATTERN can be predicted, anything can happen.
"We in the past months have been in the EYE of the perfect financial storm" Max