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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katherine Derbyshire who wrote (23544)	8/28/1998 4:26:00 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Katherine, While I agree with all your points, I did get a chuckle re how you made one. I suspect that you may have grinned a little as you wrote, " ... but that PUBLIC companies in other parts of the world do not disclose as much or as accurate information as PUBLIC companies in the US do. For examples, start with the recent Wall Street Journal article about Russian accounting practices and move on to the great mystery about exactly how much bad debt Japanese banks have. ... I couldn't help but think of WSJ stories on MFN (Mercury Finance - the discount, used car loan company), GNT (no longer exists, but counted its chickens long before they hatched), and the recent darling of the media and especially Jim Kramer, CD (Cendant - out and out fraudulent reporting of revenues), ... Hopefully, these are the exceptions that conclusively prove your point. ;-) Ian.

To: Katherine Derbyshire who wrote (23544)	8/28/1998 5:11:00 PM
From: derek cao	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Re: Investors in private companies do generally have a fair amount of information about the company's finances. Non-investors have no need for the information, as they have nothing at risk. I think you explain my point well. Thanks. Since public companies are unable to track who are their investors, they have the RESPONSIBILITY to disclose financial information to every potential investor which is the PUBLIC. Using your example, a plumber needs a licensed, a friend help me to fix pipes does not. Re: I think we're going to have to agree to disagree agree. Re: The debt-to-equity ratio got that high before the IMF was involved. Mexico must escape our memories. Derek