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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (416817)	6/19/2003 6:00:35 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I see. Another libertarian who is indistiguishable from a Berkeley leftwinger. OK. Funny. I always thought libertarianism, with its anti-state stance, was more right wing. 'earnings shell game' Most of those dot-coms never HAD any earnings to shell game. The options situation is actually worse than what you stated. It's more than dilution. It's hard cash in many cases. Remember those stock buybacks that used to be so popular? Advertised as a way of reducing outstanding shares and pumping up EPS? Well, in most cases there was another reason: that stock was to be used to back those options being issued. The extent to which start-ups are guilty in this regard is debatable. Options have long been used by start-ups as part of compensation. They used to be short of cash and would offer options in lieu of part of market price salary. However, I'd say that argument didn't apply to many of the '90s start-ups that got stuffed with cash by VCs. Bonds, and Currency also participated in the Bubble... and perhaps now sections of the Real Estate market. These dwarf the stock markets. Bonds. When their price goes up, interest rates drop. That's the Fed in action. It stuffs currency into the economy to buy federal bonds, which influences the rates all other bonds sell for. So take that argument to Slick WIllie and the Fed, not the accountants.