Originally posted by DJ FrostyFreezeZ, what were those stocks worth at their peaks and when was that?
Z, please don't tell us! I already felt blistering pain upon reading the first post, so you can spare us any more grisly details.
That said, what other stocks do you have? If you just make a list I can forward it to my broker so he can SELL THEM RIGHT AWAY! CRZ = Bad Stocks Mojo, evidently.
You should have swapped the XO for the Worldcom... Worldcom is up 97% today. Sure, that only amounts to roughly 10 cents, but you could have doubled your cash! :)
here it is for you, the link will work until 2002-JUL-16
The Corrosion of Public Trust
By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 1, 2002; 8:54 AM
We used to groan when people said, "I don't read the paper. It's too depressing."
That sounded very much like an excuse to us a rationalization for folks who didn't care all that much what was going on in the world. Or had plenty of time to watch junky TV but not, supposedly, to scan the headlines. Or were somehow trying to insulate themselves from the realities of life death and taxes and all that.
But over the last year, they may well have a point. Not about ignoring the news that seems absurd in this electronic age but about the bleakness of what we see around us.
Who, after all, can you have the slightest bit of confidence in these days?
Business leaders? They ran WorldCom, Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, Adelphia and Xerox into the ground with their greed, number-fudging, book-cooking, paper-shredding, tax-evading, corner-cutting and plain old stupidity.
Accountants? The major audit firms were so obsessed with pleasing their big customers and selling them consulting services that they blessed blatantly fraudulent numbers and missed or ignored bogus billions that have now brought down a series of huge companies.
Wall Street brokerages? Their analysts knowingly inflated a huge market bubble by pushing stocks they knew were dogs while kissing the rings of the companies involved so they could earn millions in investment banking fees and write snarky e-mails about the garbage they were peddling.
Religious leaders? The Catholic Church aided and abetted pedophiles for decades, inflicted them on the community and covered up the acquiescence of its leadership in this moral squalor.
The government? The FBI and CIA were so busy guarding their turf and refusing to talk to each other that they failed to pick up on clues that could have prevented the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. Then the authorities approved the terrorists' visas after the fact.
Martha Stewart? Not a good thing.
Amtrak? No way to run a railroad.
The airlines? They overbooked, served bad food, lied about delays and hired security guards who spent more time hassling little old ladies than Saudis with fake passports.
Historians? They plagiarized other scholars because they were too busy cranking out blockbuster books and preening on TV to double-check the facts themselves.
Athletes? They abused steroids, drugs and alcohol, flaunted gaudy tattoos, went on strike despite ridiculously generous salaries and generally acted like overpaid adolescents.
Internet geeks? They promised us a revolution of free music and free ideas while pocketing zillions in stock options, yet turned out to be arrogant, clueless and ultimately broke while presiding over a collapse whose main legacy is annoying pop-up ads.
Journalists? They became cheerleaders for crooked CEOs and compromised analysts, got bored with the terrorism story when it mattered, looked the other way on church abuses for too many years while chasing ratings and relentlessly inflicting on the public stories involving O.J., Bobbitt, Di, Elian, Chandra and now Elizabeth Smart.
Throw in the Middle East morass and Palestinian suicide bombers and it's not a pretty picture.
It's enough to make the Sopranos look good.
In fact, the corrosion of public trust may turn out to be the greatest casualty of the early 21st century.
Other than that, have a nice day.
"Until a few months ago, economists thought America had come up with a surprising invention: the 'no-slow' recession, in which growth barely pauses before resuming its upward arc," the Los Angeles Times says.
"But with business scandals spreading, stocks still sliding and the dollar dropping, the stage seems set for a distinctly less pleasant surprise: the no-growth recovery.
"Analysts fear that the latest troubles are sapping the power of the tax cuts and reduced interest rates that, by inducing consumers to continue buying, fueled most of the economy's recent comeback. 'You can't have corporate America coming out every day and announcing its financial numbers are no good and there'll have to be more layoffs, and expect consumers to keep on buying,' said James W. Paulsen, chief investment officer at San Francisco-based Wells Capital Management.
"In essence, what was supposed to be the nation's mildest recession is lingering because major parts of the economic system are clashing. Like a hapless bar band, the U.S. economy and stock market can't seem to play the same tune."
The Wall Streeters are worse than the mob, says New York Post columnist Linda Stasi:
"It was bad enough to see Enron, Andersen and Xerox all collapsing faster than Michael Jackson's last nose job - but WorldCom? The MCI outfit? Hell, my phone bill's now worth more than my stock!
"Where were the FBI, CIA and the cops while all these crooks were cooking the books from Houston to New York? I'll tell you where. They were hunting hoods in silk suits, while we were getting fleeced by pocket-protector-wearing accountants that's where! Chalk up another one for our crack federal investigators.
"If it wasn't so awful, it would be laughable: Thousands of nerds with tape on their glasses accomplishing what hordes of mobsters couldn't do steal an entire country's retirement accounts to fatten the wallets of the big bosses. And the number-crunchers did it all without breaking a single knee. Or none that we've heard of, anyway. . . . These guys are so crooked they make Tony Soprano look upright and straight. Maybe somebody should do a new crime series called 'The Accountants.' All they'd have to do is change a word here and there from actual 'Sopranos' dialogue and it would practically write itself."
The Chicago Tribune looks at the men behind one industry's collapse:
"Before the telecom cowboys, the phone was just something you picked up to make a deal.
"But once the cowboys decided the phone itself was the deal, the rush to riches was on. In hindsight, the telecom crash that followed seems inevitable. . . . The founders of WorldCom Inc., Global Crossing Ltd. and Qwest Communications International Inc. had zero telecom experience when they started their companies...
"When Bernie Ebbers started what became WorldCom, he was a small-town Mississippi basketball coach who'd bought some motels. Gary Winnick's experience before starting up Global Crossing included riding a furniture-retailing business and a mattress company into bankruptcy and working as a lieutenant to Michael Milken, the bond trader who did prison time.
"And before Philip Anschutz launched Qwest, he'd been an oil wildcatter whose strikes enabled him to buy railroads, real estate and sports teams."
Yet the press kept describing them as geniuses because their stock was going up
"If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." -Lewis Black
"Yeah, fuck you E.T. you ungrateful dick." -BigDaddyLoco 5/20/2
"MAY PRE HOUSE THE SEAMY SIDE VOLITATION!!!" Warning from a "Flying Goku" Dragon Ball Z toy
"I'm her sugar momma, which is ok, because I'm her sister." Connie French, and the funniest thing one of my customers has ever said to me
Well, Z, there are a bunch of companies that I swear by that just happen to be on NYSE and NASDAQ:
World Wrestling Entertainment: WWE 13.03 NYSE Marvel Comics: MVL 5.30 NYSE Pepsi: PBG 31.43 NYSE
Your best bet is to sink money into Marvel Comics...I'm going to the comic store now...and between the uberhigh gross for Spider-Man and the other upcoming films [Daredevil, Hulk, X-Men 2] and the fact that sales have never been higher, the stock will only go up.
Then again, what the hell do I know?
Bart: Hey, immigrants! Beat it! Country's full! Sailor: OK people, you heard the lady. Back into the hold. We'll try Canada. [the immigrants moan] -- "The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson"
"That's what the Internet is for, slandering others anonymously" Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
Dude, what the hell happened to the horse you rode in on? I'm not all that familiar with XO are they a major corporation? How long have you worked for these guys? I'm sure you got good stock options but damn 6 cents? Is this something that will ever go back up or are you looking for another job...or standing on a ledge somewhere?
Fortune Diversified Industries, formerly WOW Entertainment, Inc. is down to a bargain 12 cents a share! Jeez... that's six times as much as XO? Umm, that's a bad sign.
gonna build a giant drill and bore straight into hell releasing ancient demons from their sleep-forever spell so they can walk upon the earth and get recituated and run the diet pill pyramid that MC Pee Pants has created