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To: IceShark who wrote (7031)	11/4/1997 10:12:00 PM
From: Mike M2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18056

Dan, I'm not sure if I have this right but I have a diary with brief notes sometimes too brief. ANYWAY Roger Lowenstein of WS Journal did a story on the options scam 6/26/97 . That is if my cryptic notes are correct. I do recall reading the story and it was shocking how distorted (overstated) the earnings were for some companies. If someone has WSJ interactive they can look it up. Dan is correct the use of options as a form of compensation understates the true employee compensation cost, companies take a tax break for a charge that does not show up on the income statement-it hits the balance sheet- equity acct. the end result is the true earnings power of companies is overstated. I clipped the article but i am not very organized but if I come across it I will post some gory details. In short the practice is deceptive and misleading. mike

To: IceShark who wrote (7031)	11/4/1997 10:17:00 PM
From: Joan Osland Graffius	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 18056

Dan, >>How much would you pay for Softy if you could never sell the shares, just put them away in your portfolio until they plant you 6 foot under? I disagree with this concept. Many of us purchased this comapny in the mid 1980's and have added to our positions throughout the years. I am not there yet but will sell the stock off in small pieces for income instead of depending on dividends. Same with Oracle, Adobe, Intel and others. My tax burden will be less for income from these investments than my dividends from companies like DE, XON, GE, GM and others. Capital gains tax vs ordinary income. Also plowing the potential dividends back into these companies has been better for me in the long run--IMO. Joan