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Strategies & Market Trends : Graham and Doddsville -- Value Investing In The New Era -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (809)	9/25/1998 6:03:00 PM
From: porcupine --''''>	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1722

Daniel: Let me see if I can clarify my (rambling) remarks above. Whether it's called "bankruptcy" or "bailout", the underlying economic reality is this: A government agency has orchestrated the infusion of more capital than the free market was willing to invest into propping up someone's losing bet. This is now capital unavailable for supporting those that make winning bets. And, it weakens the lenders by extending their off-balance sheet exposure to risk. This is similar to East Asia, Russia, India, China, and many other places in this century. What is new is that not only do the lenders not understand the underlying risks, but, apparently, the "geniuses" that thought this up don't understand them either.

To: porcupine --''''> who wrote (809)	9/25/1998 7:31:00 PM
From: Freedom Fighter	Respond to of 1722

>>I would not cast this episode in the forces-of-darkness-are-out-to-get -us style of rhetoric some commentators favor, because, however true that might be, it still doesn't advance my understanding, in any scientific sense, of what is going on.<< If you were referring to me, I wouldn't call them the forces of darkness and I don't think they are out to get us. I think greed is at the core here. We have a system that has both promoted and given people the ammunition to put that emotion to work in a way that put the rest of us at risk. In this case, there are now some countries where many lives have been ruined and some are dead. For those of us who understood that this could happen beforehand, we also knew that it was avoidable and that some of the participants were taking advantage of the system knowing they would bailed out. I also suspect that many in a position to do something about it, also understood it, and did nothing. Personally I don't like people that behave like that. I think its despicable. They may not have been out to get 'us' but in many cases around the world they did. I have spent a great deal of time writing about the weaknesses and risks in our system and who would end up getting the raw deal. Personally I don't like being a welcome mat. I'd like to change things.