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To: hal jordan who wrote (4896)	5/31/1998 5:56:00 PM
From: marion (Hijacked)	Respond to of 164684

Internet companies are the cocaine of the 90's. From ABC News: <<Fred Moody Special to ABCNEWS.com Back in the go-go, white-powder-up-the-nose 1980s, Robin Williams used to joke that "cocaine was Gods way of telling you that you had too much money." And indeed, at the time, it did seem that the miracle drug was performing an important socioeconomic role by reducing the gap between the nations rich and poor. I believe now that every era has its "cocaine" -- some high-cost fashion designed to siphon off gross amounts of excess money from people who for one reason or another have accrued too much of it. You can look back over every period of economic prosperity in this country and see, in retrospect, the eras economic leveler. The 1940s had World War II; the 50s, the building of massive, soon-to-be-dysfunctional families; the 60s, Vietnam; the 70s, an epidemic of divorce; and the 80, cocaine. It was not until the launch a few days ago of a new Web site, HomeGrocer.com (www.homegrocer.com), that I recognized the Internet as the cocaine of the 90s. The Net is sucking up billions from investors and entrepreneurs who are destined to wake up some day soon with a massive hangover, an empty wallet and a departed spouse who could no longer endure his or her companions descent into dissolution. Not a day goes by now without a new, economically dubious site being launched amid great hype and expert testimony that it is the beginning of a new billion-dollar economic trend.>>

To: hal jordan who wrote (4896)	6/1/1998 1:41:00 AM
From: zebraspot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

A "constructive sale" is when IRS deems an event a sale, even if you didn't intend it to be. For instance, if you are long a stock, and then short it against-the-box, or even buy puts in it,to hedge the position for a period of time when you are nervous about the stock --you didn't sell the long outright in order to avoid booking the capital gain you have in the long -- you probably have triggered a "constructive sale". You probably owe taxes on the long, just as if you outright sold it. Selling price is pegged to the price as of the day you put on the short position(or bought the put). There are ways around this, but they are kind of tricky and the exact rules have not been codified yet, last I heard. (From what I know, you must close out the short position(or sell the put) no later than the last day of January in the following year, AND, then be naked in the long again for at least 60 days.) Basically, Clinton Administration hated shorting-against-the-box and put hedging/tax avoidance, and killed these old tools last year. Odd that so few people seem to be aware of it yet.