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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (50007)	3/5/1999 6:02:00 PM
From: wlheatmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

MB, I always feel like an idiot during the day when the rest of the world is manic and I wonder if I got the bad milk when I was young which has made me the dumb runt and I was ready to call Mamma and blame her for my stupid inability to follow the lemmings, then you come out with these thoughtful reason for being bearish, and I realize that maybe Mamma never poisoned me; why, I could just buy you that mobile home you've been eyeballing. Thanks. mike faulkner

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (50007)	3/6/1999 5:57:00 AM
From: lwd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Michael: Do you still own GZTR (The Stock Formerly Known As GENZL)? If so, would you expound a bit on its outlook. TIA Lisa

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (50007)	3/6/1999 1:28:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

To All, Barron's review: Decent issue this time, though when I finished reading it, I felt it was fine in quality but weak in quantity. 1. Abelson equates Goldman's IPO in 1999 to its 1928 offering of a mutual fund. Said fund went to a high of $326 in Oct. 1929. A month later it was trading for $1.75. Unfair, but funny. 2. Again in Abelson, Jim Grant held an Asian Conference in New Yuk and nobody showed up. Conclusion, buy Asia. 3. I have had my arguments with Randall Forsyth over the years, but his piece, "New Dusk," about the end of the secular decline in US interest rates is worth the price of the magazine. He makes a case that inflation bottomed and is now heading higher. In fact, much of the decline in inflation has come, as I've preached about often, from the Govt. changing the formula to make it look lower. Standard and Poor's estimates the govt. chicanery reduced the CPI by .7%. And, one of our favorite bugaboos, corporate borrowing, gets a decent paragraph. The fact that the private sector needs to borrow an extra 3% of GDP just to keep in business speaks not only of the future impoverishment of corporations, but of the silly arguments of those who say the savings rate is really positive. 4. An interview with economist Joel Prakken had some tidbits. Such as if corporate eps growth was so lousy when the economy was growing at 4%, how awful will it be when the economy goes back to 2% growth? And he also thinks long term rates have bottomed. Unfortunately, he spoils it for me by believing the theory that corps are going to be huge buyers of computers in the first half. Well, we are 36% of the way through the first half and we have seen nothing but an absence of demand in the pc area. If that holds, his predicted slowdown may not wait for the second half. 5. Epstein column talks about how his nominee for The Nobel Prize in Economics, Jason Benderly, got the employment report all wrong. He was more optimistic and the 50,000 lost mfg. jobs do not fit his forecast. If he keeps getting his forecasts so wrong, he is a shoe-in for the Prize. <g> 6. An economist named Gregory Valliere wrote a letter about the budget surplus to the Mailbag that Epstein destroys in a reply. Good stuff. 7. In The Trader, Andy Bary takes a potshot at Arco's dividend. Doesn't bother me. If they cut the dividend, a takeover is almost certain. 8. Trading Points has an excellent piece about Pakistan's bond deal with the Paris Club. The same column talks about how Chaste Manhattan is taking 5 cents on the dollar for its Russian bonds. Such a deal! <g> 9. The Striking Price catches Optioninvestor.Com is a lot of lies. Nice to know somebody is keeping an eye on the scamsters. However, I don't like to see all the suckers removed from the market. <g> MB