To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (376 ) 3/31/1999 4:09:00 PM From: Albert Youssef Read Replies (1) | Respond to
I don't know if it's a change in company ethics; rather I think it's a result of the company's change in fortunes. It's easy to look good when your business is booming. Heck, you can even be generous and point out potential pitfalls in advance if you're so confident that they won't threaten your growth. Then you're viewed as "above-board" and "ethical" and "investor-friendly", etc... Much harder to do this when you're faltering. And I don't know that I've ever seen the management of a Wall St. darling gracefully forecast the end of a many-years-long run before it was already painfully obvious. Heck, for all I know, maybe when the decline comes, mgmt is so conditioned by past successes that they don't accept it for what it is until too late. "It's just a blip," they say, half-believing themselves. So I'm not surprised it's the same management. In fact, in retrospect, their actions the past several months have been all to predictable.
