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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Insider who wrote (27186)	12/29/1997 1:11:00 PM
From: Reilly Diefenbach	Respond to of 50808

Would you care to elaborate? I assume that you mean this in the sense that there are some bulls with unrealistic expectations here. Possibly so in some parts, not gonna say who. I've followed this thread for about a year now, and I'd say the bear side has at times been in a major state of denial as well. Ask anyone who bought ESST at 33. Misinformation, manipulation and psychology have been the name of the game. CUBE has been a big loser here because there have been many here (shorts, etc.) who have stood to make short term gains. The long-term stalwarts of this thread (Nadalin, Rieman, et al), it seems to me, don't care much about short-term manipulations. I also have a long-term horizon for CUBE. Would you care to say what you think the long-term outlook is?

To: The Insider who wrote (27186)	12/29/1997 1:35:00 PM
From: Rarebird	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Insider, I second the nomination for " Thread In Most Denial ". Their just full-fledged Abstract Techies!

To: The Insider who wrote (27186)	12/29/1997 3:05:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

Dr. Kenichi Ohmae is in denial. He thinks the US had a currency crisis............................................................ headlines.yahoo.com Monday December 29 12:31 AM PST Asia's future still bright despite crisis, says expert KUALA LUMPUR: The future of Asia remains bright despite the currency crisis it is going through now, said a management guru known throughout the world as "Mr Strategy." Dr Kenichi Ohmae, one of Asia's best-known strategic thinkers, said Asia had excellent technology, especially in digital information, while its production know-how was second to none. Reinforcing his firm belief that Asia would emerge from the crisis even stronger economically, he said the region had plenty of capital and human resources, despite the fact that some of the assets were lost in the crisis. In a thought-provoking essay for the special collectors' edition of Asiaweek as a wrap-up to 1997, Ohmae came out with a surprising analysis, asserting that contrary to what pundits have argued, 1997 was "quite a good year" for the region. Dr Ohmae described the economic slowdown following the currency turmoil, which led to some currencies plunging by as much as 50% against the US dollar, as a "natural process." Ohmae said Asian countries were much affected by currency fluctuations because they had to deal with both the Japanese yen and the US dollar. Citing an example, he said in 1995, the yen hit 80 to the dollar; but now it is about 130 which meant that currency rates between Japan and the US had fluctuated 50%. Most Asian countries sell their products abroad in dollars. Over 90% of the international settlement of the trade of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore is in dollars. But most Asian countries borrow in yen. Thus, although their receipts (from exports) are in dollars, they pay interest in yen. This also means that when the yen was strong, Asian economies suffer - their incoming dollars lose value against their outgoing yen. Ohmae said furious fluctuations between the yen and the dollar had taken place despite the stability of the world's two largest economies, and this showed that currencies fluctuate for many reasons, some having nothing to do with economic fundamentals. He also argued at length that while US currency speculator George Soros and his vast Quantum Fund might have triggered the turmoil, the process was quite a natural one from the perspective of the global currency market. "If he hadn't, someone else would have done the same thing. And in fact, many others may have played a part in the process - some of whom have have reacted to domestic troubles in the affected economies." Dr Ohmae was convinced that the currency and stock market crises had a lot to do with the decision by Asean countries at their meeting in Kuala Lumpur in July to admit Myanmar as an Asean member as it coincided with Soros' political agenda to prevent this from happening. Both Soros and another financier, Julian Robertson, who controls Tiger Fund, began to play the Thai baht shortly after this, with both men arguing that their role was to "discipline" governments according to free market rules. The obvious victim was Thailand, whose economy, according to Ohmae, was overheated and had run a current deficit for some time. Also in Thailand, money was being pumped into the country from outside, creating an economic bubble which enabled hedge-fund speculators to make money from shorting the baht. Dr Ohmae, who recently accompanied a group of 51 Japanese executives to visit Myanmar, suggested that Soros and his research staff see for themselves the progress Myanmar had made in terms of opening up and loosening its military dictatorship. "Soros is a currency speculator and a hedge-fund manager. He should manage money, not play international politics," he said. Dr Ohmae said Asian countries had over-reacted to the currency phenomenon, especially countries which used their central banks to defend their currencies. The most disastrous case was Thailand, which was already saddled by an overheated economy made hotter by over-extended finance companies, lost roughly US$10 billion of its reserves to defend the baht. As for Malaysia, he believed the over-reaction would be corrected with calm and objective economic policies. Dr Ohmae agreed with a proposal by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the introduction of certain rules for currency trading, just as the World Trade Organisation had set rules for trading in goods and services. In his view, the most important lesson which Asia should learn from the crisis was: the market disciplines the government, not the other way around. - Bernama