I think it's kind of funny that I thought I had lots of things to say and lots of time in which to say it. Now that I have gone ahead with a blog...not enough of either.
I do have something to say about this whole Worldcom thing. Does anyone care? Probably not, but this is my blog and I'll say whatever I want (I don't think anyone reads it anyway).
Having worked for more than one public company in my life, I think that people in the investment community are getting their just desserts with Enron, Arthur Anderson, Worldcom, et al. Companies do well, investors buy stock, up goes the price, money comes in and the companies spend it. That's the whole free market system, I know and I'm all for it, but I'm getting to my point. Investors started to get greedy in the late 90's. If a compny didn't show exponential growth quarter on quarter, investors stopped buying stock, driving the price down and subsequently crippling the companies. These companies might still have been showing a profit, but that didn't matter because if it wasn't 200% it wasn't enough as far as the investors were concerned. At this point the investors start driving the business plan because the company will do whatever it has to in order to get people to buy its stock again. It doesn't matter if it's good for the long term health of the company or its employees, it only matters that the stock price goes up. Some companies handle this well and adjust their business model or lay off employees or whatever, and the investors flock back when they start seeing potential for massive profits again. Other companies do things that aren't so good, i.e. Enron, Worldcom, and friends. They screw the company, the employees, and the investors. The compnay dies, the employees may or may not find jobs ( and lose their entire retirement savings), and the investors go on to kill other companies all the while fattening their wallets in the process. That is why I think they should get screwed once in a while too.