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Gary Secondino's Weblog
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Friday, July 26, 2002
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Sliding along under the radar of most Americans is a federal bill that dramatically changes the bankruptcy laws to favor creditors over debtors. Has there been wide spread abuse of the current bankruptcy law? Who and what is propelling this reform and why?
"Research by the Federal Reserve indicates that household debt is at a record high relative to disposable income. Some analysts are concerned that this unprecedented level of debt might pose a risk to the financial health of American households.
A high level of indebtedness among households could lead to increased household delinquencies and bankruptcies, which could threaten the health of lenders if loan losses are greater than anticipated."
I don't normally make guesses about the future but in this case I believe the financial services sector is preparing for an economic free fall event in the US. How far out it might happen I don't know but given the way the economy and this administration are headed I have little confidence that a major event will be avoidable.
I think in this country we should be protecting and educating our citizens about responsible, moral, ethical financial and personal behavior. As long as we continue down the money talks and greed is king path we will continue to have leaders like Dubya who urge us to "go shopping" after a national tragedy like 9/11. We need change, but the citizens should be placed first. Anybody agree?
 12:27:00 PM Google It! comment
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A series of articles in the Washinton Post that opens the closet door exposing AOL's "creative" business deals. What happened to their ethics? Was the company so consumed with arrogance, greed, and ego that they disregarded common sense? You be the judge.
I'm not sure how long these links will live so get 'em now.
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By Alec Klein
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Page A01, Jul 25, 2002
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AOL Time Warner Inc. disclosed yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a probe into its accounting practices after ...
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By Alec Klein
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Jul 24, 2002
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AOL Time Warner Inc. disclosed today that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a probe into its accounting practices after questions ...
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By Alec Klein
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Page E01, Jul 20, 2002
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AOL Time Warner Inc. is planning another round of layoffs at its struggling Internet division in Dulles, as shaken employees continue to react to ...
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By Alec Klein
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Page A01, Jul 19, 2002
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Second of two articles At noon on Dec. 21, 2000, David M. Colburn swaggered to the stage in black cowboy boots, sporting his trademark 5 o'clock ...
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By Alec Klein
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Page A17, Jul 19, 2002
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At the height of the Internet boom, when America Online Inc. was king of the heap, it found an unlikely business partner: a former video store ...
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By Alec Klein
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Page A01, Jul 18, 2002
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First of two articles In October 2000, a critical question confronted America Online Inc. as it sought to clinch the largest merger in U.S. history: ...
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10:33:11 AM Google It! comment
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Thursday, July 25, 2002
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She said, he said, you said. A twisted, turned around web discussion about Weblog history and personalities. Children :<
2:30:33 PM Google It! comment
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An interesting "web" discussion developed about the quality of Userlands RSS feeds. It's a bit technical and very interesting see how the ideas develop (or don't develop).
9:22:12 AM Google It! comment
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Tuesday, July 9, 2002
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Wireless connecting of MP3 players, computers, Sat. radio to nearby FM Receivers.
I gotta have one of them.
5:17:50 PM Google It! comment
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Reason #1 - Bush's failure to notify the SEC for 34 weeks that he had sold his Harken stock was a simple mistake.
But, was it a "mistake" with a purpose? Timely reporting of the stock sale might have raised some potentially embarrassing questions at the time:
Reason #2 - Yes, Bush had served at the time on both Harken's board and its audit committee, but he was out of the loop. He was not aware that consultants at Smith Barney, who had been hired by the audit committee and were working for them, had discovered that the company was $150 million in debt and would lose $23 million that year.
What is missing is testimony under oath - what did Bush know, and when did he know it before dumping his stock?
Reason #3 - The SEC investigated the whole Harken matter in 1990 and found no reason to pursue it.
True, as far as it goes. But take a closer look and this reason loses all its luster.
At the time of the SEC investigation, Richard Breeden was SEC Commissioner. Breeden was appointed to his pposition by President George H. Bush. Then he was asked to investigate the boss's son. (Previously Breeden had served in the Reagan/Bush administration as deputy White House counsel for Vice President Bush.)
Breeden passed this hot potato to his deputy, James R. Doty, to investigate. In private life Doty had been the accused's attorney.Among other things, Doty had negotiated Bush's acquisition of the Texas Rangers baseball team.
Doty quickly slammed the coffin lid shut on the investigation - without interviewing a single Harken board member. And there it has lain buried ever since - case closed.
12:38:39 PM Google It! comment
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A 1990 stock sale by George W. Bush shadows the current business ethics drive in Washington.
by Richard W. Stevenson
NYTimes
12:27:49 PM Google It! comment
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I liked most of what he said. But it's what he does that really matters. And PLEASE stop the inappropriate God blessing in every speech. Unless you want to appear a larger hypocrite than you already are.
12:25:57 PM Google It! comment
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Monday, July 8, 2002
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"And now a new administration takes office, with the narrowest political base in memory, consisting of no more than corporate power, the professional military, and the Christian Right. Lacking theories or theorists, this coalition will attempt to govern without fresh rhetoric. Meanwhile, vast constituencies---including the African-American and Jewish communities, labor, environmentalists, feminists, and the intellectuals---have already withdrawn their consent to be governed. What Birnbaum seeks, "not a promised land, but a terrain of dialogue and experiment"could, just possibly, be about to open across the wide fissures of the American opposition, motivated in part by shared rejection of rule by markets alone."
...James K. Galbraith
12:32:36 PM Google It! comment
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On Tuesday, George W. Bush is scheduled to give a speech intended to put him in front of the growing national outrage over corporate malfeasance. He will sternly lecture Wall Street executives about ethics and will doubtless portray himself as a believer in old-fashioned business probity.
Yet this pose is surreal, given the way top officials like Secretary of the Army Thomas White, Dick Cheney and Mr. Bush himself acquired their wealth. As Joshua Green says in The Washington Monthly, in a must-read article written just before the administration suddenly became such an exponent of corporate ethics: "The `new tone' that George W. Bush brought to Washington isn't one of integrity, but of permissiveness. . . . In this administration, enriching oneself while one's business goes bust isn't necessarily frowned upon."
NYTimes
12:30:23 PM Google It! comment
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Friday, July 5, 2002
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For the past month, readers have been sending us the URLs of their weblogs. We'll soon be publishing a more comprehensive guide - but until then, here is a list of some of the blogs we liked, with brief notes.
The Guardian
12:00:24 PM Google It! comment
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In Cambridge, where the measure passed the city council by a 5-4 margin on June 17, the resolution says in part, "We believe these civil liberties [freedom of speech, assembly and privacy; equality before the law; due process; and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures] are now threatened by the USA Patriot Act."
Cities across the country have been quietly staging a revolt against the USA Patriot Act, saying it gives law enforcement too much power and threatens civil rights.
iSay - Only eight?
11:48:34 AM Google It! comment
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iSay - And so am I. The secrecy, hypocrisy, and lying by this administration is disgusting.
Dubya and Harvey Pitt say they are outraged about WorldCom. But, Arthur Levitt, Bill Clinton's choice to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, crusaded for better policing of corporate accounting [~] though he was often stymied by the power of lobbyists. George W. Bush replaced him with Harvey Pitt, who promised a "kinder and gentler" S.E.C. Even after Enron, the Bush administration steadfastly opposed any significant accounting reforms. For example, it rejected calls from the likes of Warren Buffett to require deduction of the cost of executive stock options from reported profits.
11:31:17 AM Google It! comment
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At a time when many authorities, from the U.S. Supreme Court to state governments, are rethinking aspects of capital punishment, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft is aggressively pursuing the federal death penalty and frequently overruling his own prosecutors in the process, according to records and public officials.
Since taking office early last year, Ashcroft has reversed the recommendations of federal prosecutors 12 times, ordering them to seek the death penalty in cases where they had recommended against doing so, according to statistics compiled by the federal capital defense bar. These include at least one case in which a tentative plea agreement had already been reached.
WashingtonPost
iSay - I wonder what John Ashcroft's position is on abortion?
9:03:43 AM Google It! comment
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Tuesday, July 2, 2002
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by Davi Corn
"This is no peace plan. It is more akin to a wish list. If only those unruly and unfortunate Palestinians would transform themselves into a democratic and prosperous community--without a trace of Arafat--wouldn't life in the Middle East be less complicated? Then, of course, they could have a quasi-state of their own."
3:26:13 PM Google It! comment
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The company that did the poluting is supposed to pay for the clean up not the taxpayers. Greedy hypocrites.
1:17:10 PM Google It! comment
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President Bush, a former oil company CEO, the first president with an MBA and an unabashed advocate of big business, is considering new protections for stockholders and new penalties for unethical executives. But most Americans don't hold him accountable for the recent rash of corporate scandals.
Perhaps this is because the Bush network spins the facts, rewrites history, and lies about our appointed presidents past. Read Craig's Booknotes to see the truth.
Everyone Is Outraged
by Paul Krugman
Now to the story of Harken Energy, as reported in The Wall Street Journal on March 4. In 1989 Mr. Bush was on the board of directors and audit committee of Harken. He acquired that position, along with a lot of company stock, when Harken paid $2 million for Spectrum 7, a tiny, money-losing energy company with large debts of which Mr. Bush was C.E.O. Explaining what it was buying, Harken's founder said, "His name was George Bush." Unfortunately, Harken was also losing money hand over fist. But in 1989 the company managed to hide most of those losses with the profits it reported from selling a subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum, at a high price. Who bought Aloha? A group of Harken insiders, who got most of the money for the purchase by borrowing from Harken itself. Eventually the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that this was a phony transaction, and forced the company to restate its 1989 earnings. But long before that ruling -- though only a few weeks before bad news that could not be concealed caused Harken's shares to tumble -- Mr. Bush sold off two-thirds of his stake, for $848,000. Just for the record, that's about four times bigger than the sale that has Martha Stewart in hot water. Oddly, though the law requires prompt disclosure of insider sales, he neglected to inform the S.E.C. about this transaction until 34 weeks had passed. An internal S.E.C. memorandum concluded that he had broken the law, but no charges were filed. This, everyone insists, had nothing to do with the fact that his father was president.
It's the same old swindlers story, if you didn't get caught, you didn't do anything wrong. Dub'ya ego say's what can I get away with. Question, find me an honest politician? Answer, I can't they're all dead.
12:35:57 PM Google It! comment
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