[geeks] (Almost nothing to do with )Carley Fiorina

[Lionel Peterson]

--- "Greg A. Woods" <woods at weird.com> wrote:
> [ On Sunday, December 1, 2002 at 16:35:13 (-0800), Lionel Peterson
> wrote: ]
> > Subject: Re: [geeks] Carley Fiorina

> > price/market cap. I own shares in several companies, and I expect
> > the leaders of the companies I own stock in to maximize value...
> 
> That's _ALL_ you expect of your investments!?!?!?

Investments are based on business decisions, using money to further a
social cause is called charity.

We were discussing businesses, not charities...
  
> If all you want is to make more money with your money then the best
> way to do that is to lend it out like a bank does (and if you want
> to do it safely then you'll probably want to put it in a big enough
> pool with other people's money so that the odd bad borrower doesn't
> sink your ship).

Nah, I'd prefer to lend it like the Sopranos do, but that's illegal
and, (I'm sure you'd point out ;^) unethical...
 
> However if you want your money to do some good, not _just_ make more
> money, then you should invest it ethically.

Using money to further a social cause is not an investment. Well, an
investment decision compromised by unrelated factors (won't invest in
companies owned by Germans, won't invest in companies that did business
in South Africa, or even if the President of the company takes some of
his own money and invests it in a way someone doesn't like... These are
all reasons I have heard to avoid certain companies in the past.).
Where I stand on any of these issues in unrelated to an investment
decision, IMHO.
  
> Beyond that I wish investors who choose the stock market to pour
> their money into would get the stock value out of their minds,
> especially the daily prices, (and just be damn happy if it stays
> level so that they don't lose their original stake), and instead
> focus more on dividends.

I don't understand how that would work - I'm sure my confusion has more
to do with the way you described it, not the intent of your statement.
You really seem to be talking about bonds, not stocks...

> All this stock trading for the sake of trading stock is B.S. with a
> capital 'B' and a capital 'S'.  It should be outlawed.  It causes
> nothing but grief and suffering in the long run (even the traders
> themselves, who you'd think would be in the best position, just like
> a banker, usually get too greedy and fall big-time too) -- and they
> say we're due for yet another crash any time soon too.

Stupid people investing money do stupid things, unless we can get rid
stupid people, we have to tolerate them... ;^)


=====
Lionel

"Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten
programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software"
Bill Gates, in "An OpenLetter to Hobbyists" dated February 3, 1976
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