Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : The Naked Truth - Big Kahuna a Myth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MythMan who wrote (28522)	3/28/1999 2:17:00 PM
From: Lucretius	Respond to of 86076

the word "maul" came to mind. I hear bears are known to do that to people when they're angry -g-

To: MythMan who wrote (28522)	3/28/1999 2:20:00 PM
From: accountclosed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86076

Wow, that's quite a story. I'm not sure I understand it, in that they lose the rights, but retain certain rights... I am one of the few in these parts to be foolish enough to hold msft puts...they haven't been a success. It is like a vampire, you need a silver bullet with garlic and a priest to kill it. Bad news takes it down 1/8 and rumors of good news carry it to new highs. === Slick speaking.

To: MythMan who wrote (28522)	3/28/1999 3:45:00 PM
From: Lucretius	Respond to of 86076

if they don't cut (and I don't think they will).... WE CRASH... I guarantee it. If they surprise me and cut... we get even sillier for another 5 months probably before REALLY crashing and burning. Sunday March 28, 9:22 am Eastern Time Fed to keep U.S. rates on hold as economy thrives By Knut Engelmann WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - Confronted with a solid economy that shows no signs of being dragged down by the global turmoil around it, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers meeting on Tuesday are expected to leave key interest rates unchanged. Facing a by now familiar set of opposing economic forces -- weakness abroad countered by strong growth at home that could rekindle inflation -- analysts forecast the central bank would opt for the safest course available: Sit back and wait. ''They are completely in the dark about which way to go,'' said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Mutual Life in Boston. ''There's a huge lack of clarity about what is going to happen next.'' All 25 primary government securities dealers surveyed by Reuters last week agreed the Fed would keep the federal funds bank lending rate at 4.75 percent, arguing there was no obvious sign of higher inflation that would warrant a rate rise. The fed funds rate determines borrowing costs throughout the United States and well beyond its borders. The Fed last changed interest rates in late 1998, when it cut the fed funds rate by a total of three quarters of a percentage points in a bid to shield the world's biggest economy from the fallout of a global financial crisis. Even though Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has since indicated the central bank may want to reverse some of those cuts, most Fed watchers cautioned that now was not the time to do so. The economy grew by a fiery 6.1 percent in the final three months of 1998, despite a drop in exports to crisis-ridden emerging markets. Analysts expect it to have maintained plenty of momentum in the first months of this year, fueled most of all by an undiminished boom in consumer spending. But strong U.S. growth and tight labor markets have yet to translate into higher inflation, the Fed's nemesis. Consumer prices, the most common inflation gauge, inched up a mere 0.1 percent last month for a modest 1.6 percent gain on the year. ''What we have is essentially price stability,'' Philadelphia Fed President Edward Boehne, a voting member of the Fed's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, said this month. Amid lingering fears that U.S. growth may in fact be so strong that it could rekindle inflation, financial markets will look closely for signs that the Fed is preparing for a rate rise sometime down the road to prevent economic overheating. But of 25 economists surveyed, only two expected the Fed to switch to a ''bias'' toward higher rates from its current neutral stance. Financial markets often use the bias as an indicator for the likely direction of a coming rate change -- up if it is a bias toward tightening or down if the bias is toward easing. In the past, changes in the bias have not been made public until after the subsequent FOMC meeting. In December, the Fed decided it would in the future disclose such moves immediately after its meetings if and when the change in strategy was deemed significant enough to warrant the market's attention. Many analysts said sending a signal now that higher rates might be in the offing could do more harm than good by upsetting the fragile equilibrium of economic strength at home and continuing gloom in many economies abroad. ''We are on the razor's edge: The risks to the economy may be even but the drop on either side is pretty big,'' said Catherine Mann, a former Fed economist who now works at the Institute for International Economics think-tank. ''You don't want to do anything that could move the economy off of this razor's edge -- and changing the bias may well do that.'' Still, a handful of central bank watchers said a change in bias should not be ruled out, arguing the Fed historically has always viewed inflation as a greater danger than anything playing out beyond the U.S. economy's borders. ''The economy has been growing at a pace much greater than expectations,'' said former Fed governor Lyle Gramley, who is now an adviser to the Mortgage Bankers Association. ''If the economy is growing at an unsustainable pace, eventually you're going to have to do something about it.'' The Fed's next policy meeting is scheduled for May 18. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------