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Ooooh great, then Intel will have no more proforma, one time charges and will expense options.
Capex down to me means.... getting ready to weather a storm.
OJ always take care of business. He is short NVLS CYMI and long KLIC. Appears he did well.
<<thanks pal...i am short nvls and cymi here..long elx and smh..and a boat load of klic...large size stock and options>>
I like your cat anyway. hehehe
"I may not be "man" enough" Oh man...my perception of your sex is now warped. vbg.
Loaded to the Gills? I think it's not wise going into INTC. The INTC report will set the tone for January Earnings.
I get these patches from MS and believe they jerk with Java Ie: Sun.
<<hope your long>>> No I am flat going into INTC. I just don't see the light. Hope the light you see is not the train at the end of the tunnel. Anywho good luck with the position.
The heatmap responds with this: classNotFoundException:com.Neovision.WebHeatmaps.ClientWhClientA
What does this mean.
"Another number to watch for during Intel's report will be its capital spending budget for 2003. Intel makes up about a quarter of the industry's entire spending power. Last year, Intel spent about $4.7 billion and analysts are predicting its budget should be about $4 billion in 2003.
That budget can fluctuate, however. At the beginning of 2002, Intel predicted it would spend $5.5 billion and then proceeded to slash that budget twice during the year."
Glad to see you around. I was wondering how your site was going. Too bad you don't have lifetime membership, vbg.
My heatmap has not worked for 10 days. I wonder if XP had something to do with the Java program. <<vbg>>
"Deutsche Banc analyst Tim Arcuri predicted Intel's cap-ex would total $4.7 billion and that spending on actual equipment would make up about 65 percent of that total vs. only 50 percent last year".
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&gui...
Over a year ago INTC made the decision to dump money in the facilities overseas saying "we will be ready for the upswing around the corner". The street loved it but I was thinking to myself they better be right or they will suffer. I think the report tonight will be ugly and show the poor management decision of the past.
Fletch, that morph is something else. What program did you use.
I just can't see INTL increasing capex. I think they just come out with flat numbers with some huge write offs.
I agree Sandy. I just don't see him picking up his marbles and leave, especially after seeing his action in the Gulf War.
He is getting up in age and after all his reign does not want to go down in history as running for cover. But I can see him sending his family away before the war. That is what the meeting is about in my honest opinion.
`U.S. guarantees reflect bankruptcy'
By Guy Rolnik and Meirav Arlosoroff
The government's application to the United States for loan guarantees reflects the country's dire economic situation, former finance minister Avraham Shochat told Ha'aretz.
"This application is one of the heaviest indicators for Israel's weakness in the international markets. In the 1990s Israel needed guarantees because it had to absorb massive immigration and did not have sufficient foreign exchange reserves. Now the story is different, because we have large forex reserves. The reason for the current application is the dire economic crisis and the high interests charged from the government both in Israel and abroad," Shochat explained.
"The guarantee is intended to finance the deficit and repay $12-$13 billion over the next three years. Namely, in terms of being able to secure and repay loans, we have reached bankruptcy. The public should know this will not boost the economy; the guarantees are like oxygen for an economy that is in bad condition."
Israel has asked the U.S. administration for guarantees to secure $8 billion in the U.S. bonds market. In addition, Israel asked for special defense aid of $4 billion. Although the security aid is justifiable and needed, Shochat said, Israel must be aware of its drawbacks: "The Defense Ministry has a surplus of foreign exchange and a shortage of shekels. Let's say we get another billion dollars - we'll have lots of dollars, and the IDF will buy even less in Israel and start directing even R&D budgets to the U.S. This will certainly have an adverse effect on Israel's economy."
The treasury would not comment.
I also think the article hits the target. Software has accomplished its goal by making everyones life more organized. I wonder if Cloning is the next wave of innovation.
Is Microsoft courting disaster?
http://rtnews.globetechnology.com/servlet/ArticleNews/tech/RTGAM/20030109/gtsurveyor2/Technology/tec...
By JACQUES SURVEYER Thursday, January 9
As any one who has substantial technology investments in the stock market knows, IT spending has followed the dot.com bubble burst and is in the doldrums. North American shipments of PCs and servers were down by 5 per cent in 2001 and it looks like this year will barely scratch out 1- to 2-per-cent growth.
The basic problem is that processing power is quickly approaching the point where it's an almost free resource as Moore's Law continues to deliver a doubling in computing power every 18 months; and millions of design engineers go out and translate that into better hardware, devices, storage capacity, and communication hardware.
But who needs it ? Nobody right now, because only the most ambitious of graphics, simulation, analysis, voice and handwriting programs and/or interfaces can hope to swallow sizable chunks of the power of a $2,000 computer. So for most users, corporate and home, why upgrade?
As a result, companies as diverse as AMD, Adobe, Cisco, Corel, Intel, Oracle, Sun, and the other big names of the computing revolution have seen their stocks crater in the past two years. Everybody is affected by the following major trends:
1)PC and Server market saturation are being reached as the power and reliability of existing software and hardware does not justify two- to four-year update cycles, because people and conversion costs are now the critical factors in the upgrade equation;
2)Software innovation is slowing down with no new killer application in the IT arena since the Mosaic browser. Also, Microsoft acts as a strict Gateskeeper of PC innovation - JPEG2000 and Java do not get in, but handwriting and voice do, on Microsoft's terms;
3)Hardware, communication and storage price/performance continue to improve dramatically - but the driver is fear of being displaced, as most developers and manufacturers barely eek out profitable returns;
4)Software costs and development are at transition - as the major player, Microsoft, raises its prices in contrast to just about every other software company.
It is this last phenomenon that I would like to examine in more detail.
In a Down Market - Raise Your Prices
In the DOJ/Microsoft antitrust trial, one of the expert witnesses testifying on behalf of Microsoft argued that the true test of monopoly power was not the holding of 60-, 70-, or even 80-per-cent market share; but the ability to do so for long periods of time - several years, if not decades - and then the ability to uniquely raise prices in markets while its competitors could not.
He then went on to argue that there was no evidence that Microsoft had done so in any markets where it had "large share positions."
What a difference a year and and few months make. Going into its seventh year of 80-per-cent-plus market share of Office Suites, Microsoft has been able, according to Gartner Group, to raise its prices by 30 per cent to more than 100 per cent, while imposing unwanted conditions of renewal and other product update conditions on its largest customers.
Now it its not my intention to debate the merits or drawbacks of the Microsoft Software Assurance Plan, but rather to examine the consequence of Microsoft boldy going where it has never gone before - being the highest-priced producer in some of its major markets.
Let us examine the notion that Microsoft has become like butter, the high-priced spread. For Office XP Standard Edition, CNET's November 18th average price was $390; for Corel Word Perfect 2002 Suite it was $270; for Lotus Smart Suite Millenium, $210; Sun Star Office was $80; and Open Office was and still is $0 (free download at OpenOffice.org). It is estimated that the Office Suite alone accounts for $10-billion of Microsft's $30-billion in annual revenue. For Windows XP Home the price was $190; for Mandrake Linux 8 it was $27 ($0 on direct download); for Windows 2000 Advanced Server it was $2,350 for one CPU 25 users; Redhat 8 Enterprise edition with unlimited users was $149; Solaris 9 on x86 with unlimited users, $90. The estimates vary from $8-billion to $12-billion for the revenue brought in by the Windows server and desktop editions. Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET was $750; GCC and other GPL developer software on Linux, $0.
So for more than two-thirds of Microsoft's software portfolio by revenue the company is no longer the best price/performance producer, but in fact often has one of the highest purchase costs. Now Microsoft might argue that they have the best features and functionality, and in the case of Visual Studio with its drag-and-drop designers and visual debuggers that may well be true.
But not so in the case of Office editions and both desktop and server operatings systems. The core features of Star Office/Open Office (they use 95 per cent of the same codebase) are very competitive with Microsoft Office. In addition, OpenOffice adds the the non-trivial virtues of cross platform performance including running on versions of Windows that Microsoft no longer supports, while supporting an open XML-based file storage format in contrast to Microsoft's proprietary format.
On the Windows side, Microsoft has set a hefty pace for including many free utilities and services with the operating system, but Sun's Solaris and many of the Linux distributions have matched most of those utilities and gone Microsoft two or three major systems better. For example, Solaris now includes an Application server plus complete Java development environ. Linux has not just a Java environ; but development tools for C, C++, Perl, PHP plus a very good MySQL database, along with a host of other utilities. So again, on the OS side the features and functionality of Solaris and Linux match if not exceed Windows.
But on total cost of ownership, both Solaris and Linux have much superior records for availability, reliability and especially security. In the past two years Microsoft shops have had a particularly onerous set of administrative- and cleanup-related costs associated with Windows desktop and server. Office, and especially Outlook and Internet Explorer, have racked up onerous TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) costs in the reliability and security areas.
So why does Microsoft raise its prices having surrendered one of its key competitive advantages - being consistently the best price/performance leader in many of its markets.
Well, as professor Schmalensee might argue, it's because as monopolists, they can.
Others would argue that Microsoft is taking advantage of the fact that software has entrenchment costs which now exceed almost all other IT costs. Companies don't want to switch because they might suffer high conversion and retraining costs. Then again, perhaps Microsoft executives believe that it has gained unmatched hypothetical leads in ease of use, manageability, and customizability of its software. And with the promise of better reliability and scalability largely delivered in SQL Server and to a lesser extent in the Windows OS, Microsoft managers might think why not raise prices when usable software easily displaces hardware as the crucial factor in delivering functional IT systems.
Or perhaps there is truth to the oft re-emerging rumour that Microsoft is determined to move much of its software over to an annual subscription model at the least and on-demand utility pricing models as the best for Microsoft and its customers as well.
But these are exactly the turbulent market conditions that famed Economist Joseph Schumpeter called capitalism's "creative destruction". Is eWeek right that given the increased prices, forced updates, and continued slow improvements to its core applications, Microsoft Office is courting a catastrophe? Stayed tuned - Microsoft may be like a teenager changing lanes on the Enterprise IT freeway before it has mastered delivering the requisite availability, reliability, scalability and security capabilities across its total product line.
And we haven't even whispered any words on interoperability, until now.
Japan to lower assessment of its economy: Nikkei by Tomi Kilgore
Japan's government will lower the assessment of its economy in its monthly economic report for January, according to a report in the Nikkei newspaper's Sunday edition, which cited government sources. The Cabinet Office's report will say the economy is "weakening" though "recovery trends" are seem in some areas, the report said, versus December's report that said the economy remained "flat." The government will cite weak industrial production, the report added, which declined sequentially for three consecutive months through November.
.....No link provided because IHUB will not let me post link.
Luv Ya Blue!
Here is something real juicy for you basserdan.
http://www.financialsense.com/Market/commentary.htm
BTW, I am a carry over fan from the Oilers.
Appreciate the feedback mudcat.
Depression-Era Food Lines
George W. Bush's America as seen by CBS News: Bread lines, reminiscent of the Depression-era, made up of average Americans with jobs. Over video of a long line in Marietta, Ohio, on the January 8 60 Minutes II, Scott Pelley ominously intoned: “The lines we found looked like they’d been taken from the pages of the Great Depression. It's not just the unemployed, we found plenty of people working full-time but still not able to earn enough to keep hunger out the house. If you think you have a good idea of who's hungry in America today, come join the line. You'd never guess who you'd meet there.”
While Pelley never uttered the name George W. Bush once during his 12 minute piece, the implication came through. Pelley noted, for instance, how “since 1999, the number of people getting emergency food aid in Ohio alone has grown from 2 million to 4.5 million.” Pelley contended in relaying the view of a groups which wants more government spending: “Nationwide, the problem is not just in rural scenes like this. The U.S. Conference of Mayors says the need for emergency food aid in major cities jumped 19 percent last year alone."
Pelley's emotions over facts style of reporting included this line: “Pre-schoolers come here with their parents and play in boxes as empty as the day's want-ads."
Pelley asked, "When you look at this line, what do you see?" And answered the question himself: "You know what I see? Some pretty average looking Americans." When Pelley suggested “a lot of people in this country would be surprised to see this line, surprised to see a food line in America again," a local Ohio food bank operator declared in a comment which ended the story: "Oh yeah, we’ve gone backwards. This is what I heard from my mom and dad. This is what it was during the Depression era. That, you know, people stood in line to get government commodities. We haven’t come very far, have we?”
Though Pelley highlighted some heartbreaking cases, he refrained from examining the poor personal decisions which led his victim families to their plight. All the families he looked at receive food stamps.
Pelley began his report, which was brought to my attention by MRC analyst Brian Boyd:
"We met some people standing in a line the other day, a nurse with a new baby, an army vet, three ladies who spent a lifetime working in the same factory. All of them and hundreds more were drawn to the line by hunger. We are about to show you bread lines in America that you may find hard to believe. With the recession there has been a sudden leap in the number of people on emergency food assistance. The lines we found looked like they’d been taken from the pages of the Great Depression. It's not just the unemployed, we found plenty of people working full-time but still not able to earn enough to keep hunger out the house. If you think you have a good idea of who's hungry in America today, come join the line. You'd never guess who you'd meet there.”
Over video of a long line Pelley explained: “This is the head of a food line forming outside Marietta, Ohio. We're going to show you the end but that will take a while. The people in front came at dawn. Sometimes the food runs out before the line does. So it’s best to get in early.
“They’ve come with empty boxes and baskets and little red wagons and if they wait, up to five hours, they carry away groceries that will last a few days. Lately, the food’s been coming once every few weeks. And each time the crowd is getting larger, stretching like the line on a graph marking the recession.
“This day, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, the line was the longest it's been. Through the fair ground parking lot, out to the street and beyond. How many? We counted 896. One line from a thousand walks of life.”
Pelley asked a woman: “Why do you have to come here?"
Marslyn (sp?) Clark: "Because we really, my husband really doesn't make enough for all of our groceries.”
Pelley: "Is he working full-time?"
Clark: "He works full-time."
Pelley: "Usually Marslyn and her husband both work, but Marslyn is taking time off now for her new born, a girl named Autumn."
Clark: "I'm a nurse and I have a good job, but this is just something that we have to do to get by right now."
After showcasing a veteran of World War II and the Great Depression, Pelley turned to Bob Garbo, head of the local affiliate of America's Second Harvest. He opined: "This is going in my mind backwards, I mean this is, we're doing things that we did before food stamps, before we had various programs. And quite frankly it's a little bit hard to watch sometimes."
Pelley added: "Bob Garbo is watching as head of the local affiliate of the non-profit group America's Second Harvest. The food being distributed in his line comes mostly from government programs and from private donations.
“This day the line grew so long that they brought an extra truck -- they hadn’t done that before. But since 1999, the number of people getting emergency food aid in Ohio alone has grown from 2 million to 4.5 million. There are a lot of reasons: housing costs are rising and medical costs. Unemployment is up, and many jobs that are available are minimum wage."
Garbo: “Our jobs are not high paying jobs. In rural America most of these jobs folks are getting when they come off of public assistance are $6 and $7 and hour jobs -- with no benefits, by the way.”
Pelley soon profiled his first victim: “The issue is the working poor. Forty percent of the families in these lines have one parent working. Rick Payne is working full time in one of those big home improvement stores. But he’s supporting a wife and four kids on $7.50 an hour. When we sat down with Payne, his wife Alexis and 12-year-old, Brandon, they had $17 to their name."
On a 40 hour a week basis over 50 weeks $7.50 an hour would total, by my calculation, $15,000 a year. Plus, as Pelley noted, the Paynes get $300 a month in food stamps. Yet at the end of the month they live on potato soup. Sounds to me like really bad money management.
Trying to generate viewer sympathy, Pelley asserted: "Almost half the people fed by these lines are kids. The Agriculture Department figures one out of six children in America faces hunger. That's more than 12 million kids. Nationwide wide children have the highest poverty rate. Pre-schoolers come here with their parents and play in boxes as empty as the day's want-ads."
Pelley talked with kids who wanted food and then profiled a woman who said she must mix milk with water to make it last for her baby, though she gets both welfare and food stamps.
Pelley conceded: "Most of the people in line don't look like they're starving. We noticed some were even overweight. But hunger in America isn’t starvation, it’s malnutrition -- children too hungry to concentrate in school, the pain of skipped meals. There may be some in line who are taking unfair advantage of a free food program even if they have to wait for hours. But it's also true that many in these lines are new to hunger: losing jobs or getting hit with medical bills, for example, just months or weeks ago.
“We visited another line in McArthur, Ohio, where the holidays were closing in and so was the weather. This line is about 40 percent longer than it was just three years ago. Nationwide, the problem is not just in rural scenes like this. The U.S. Conference of Mayors says the need for emergency food aid in major cities jumped 19 percent last year alone."
On to his third victim family, Pelley highlighted a woman whose marriage broke up and the kids now only can eat at school, but the 12-year-old brings some food home. The family supposedly can't eat, yet Pelley reported they get $700 a month in welfare and food stamps.
Garbo compared the situation to the fear of terrorism: “I’ll tell you in all honesty I sense a fear. It’s a fear. We talk about terror nowadays. The terror is fear. And if you really get to visit with families who are really up against it, there’s a fear.”
Back to the Payne family, they figured out you can work more than just one job and now make some money for cleaning their church each Sunday. But, and in the TV world of victims there is always a but, the father teared-up as he related how he cannot afford to pay his son the promised $5 a week for helping with the church clean-up.
Pelley wrapped up his anecdotal piece with this exchange between himself and Garbo: "When you look at this line, what do you see?"
Garbo: "You see pain."
Pelley: "You know what I see? Some pretty average looking Americans."
Garbo: "Oh yeah, sure, this is southeast Ohio, buddy. This is it, this is it and you’ll see this pretty well all over the country probably.”
Pelley: "I think a lot of people in this country would be surprised to see this line, surprised to see a food line in America again."
Garbo: “Oh yeah, we’ve gone backwards. This is what I heard from my mom and dad. This is what it was during the Depression era. That, you know, people stood in line to get government commodities. We haven’t come very far, have we?”
If true, that would be quite an indictment of the billions spend in the war on poverty, but Pelley didn't broach that liberal failure.
As for how the Bush era has brought us full circle to Hoover, remember that the GDP is growing at a healthy rate, inflation, which most ravages the poor, is at a historically low level, unemployment is at barely 6 percent, well below where it stood in 1980, and the full welfare state is humming and sending out checks and food stamps to all of the poor.
For the Web-posted version of Pelley's story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/08/60II/main535732.shtml
For a picture and bio of Pelley:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/06/23/60II/main51732.shtml
Has anyone notice problems posting links in IHUB. I can't post any.
One more short serving of MMM if it hits 127.20 area. I will cover position at 127.50 if move is against me.
MMM intraday looks like it going to fall out of bed. 126.65 is a good short. I am positioned.
SEC relents on audit law for foreign companies
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=103....
My Comment: they say Germany and Japan. But I bet Bermuda ie: TYCO...was the key factor in the exemptions.
By Adrian Michaels in New York
Published: January 8 2003 20:42 /
US regulators on Wednesday bowed to heavy lobbying, amending sweeping legislation to allow companies from countries such as Germany and Japan to maintain their established corporate governance practices.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed last year after a wave of corporate scandals, led to complaints that the US was extending its jurisdiction.
On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US's chief financial regulator, proposed wide-ranging modifications to the law. The move is the SEC's first serious granting of exemptions to Sarbanes-Oxley and offers hope to others seeking concessions, such as companies and accountants in the UK.
Companies and regulators, mainly in Europe and Japan, said that compliance with the new law would require upheavals in their own systems of regulation and substantially increase costs.
Harvey Goldschmid, one of five SEC commissioners who voted unanimously on the rule changes, said: "We have tried to meet legitimate concerns from outside the US, where their corporate governance provisions would provide comparable protection for investors."
Sarbanes-Oxley covers 14,000 US public companies as well as the 1,300 non-US companies listed on US stock exchanges.
The biggest concessions involve the independence of company audit committees. US legislators, mindful that directors had to step up their scrutiny of management and outside accountants, had mandated that audit committees be composed solely of independent directors.
But Germany pointed out that its two-tier structure of management and supervisory boards often led to employee representatives making decisions on audits.
Countries such as Japan and Italy complained that company audit committees were not always staffed by people who were also board directors.
The SEC said such structures would be allowed "where provided for under local law".
The changes are a victory for those worried that the US laws were drawn up in haste and would create unnecessary burdens for non-US companies. An influential panel will today give strong backing to some of the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms.
The Conference Board commission on public trust, co-chaired by John Snow, the White House's nominee for Treasury secretary, will recommend that companies institute a strong check on the power of chief executives, splitting the role of chairman and CEO.
While I did have something to do, I made a point to watch the show. That kid is really huge. Seems like a very nice boy who could have a great career in sports. I was really impressed with Shaq who took the time to give the kid some pointers and to make him feel accepted. I think the the kid experience some guidance and future goals ( no pun intended...ditto <vbg>).
It's hard to believe that some radio DJ can call Chavez up and discuss business.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/2003/01/07/business/4888423.htm
No Caller ID? Chávez falls for Castro prank 'call'
BY CHRISTINA HOAG
choag@herald.com
MORNING HIJINKS: DJs Joe Ferrero, left, and Enrique Santos are known for playing outrageous pranks on the air. TIM CHAPMAN/Herald file
Two Miami radio-show hosts known for playing outrageous pranks on the air scored perhaps the most outlandish one of them all Monday:
They called Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and got him to believe he was talking to Fidel Castro.
''We still can't believe it,'' said Enrique Santos, co-host of El Vacilón de la Mañana, (The Morning Hijinks), on WXDJ-FM El Zol 95.7, a Spanish-language salsa station. ``He fell for it.''
The joke was part of a segment called Fidel Te Llama or ''Fidel's Calling You,'' in which Santos and co-host, Joe Ferrero, call various people and play snippets of a controversial conversation between Castro and Mexican President Vicente Fox that Castro made public in 2001.
Hearing Castro's distinctive rasp, the unsuspecting recipients of the call usually believe it is the comandante himself on the phone. After a few minutes of a disjointed conversation in which the same nonsensical sentence fragments are repeated, the victims get suspicious.
Santos and Ferrero then drop the bombshell that it is a Miami radio station calling.
On Monday, Chávez, who counts Castro as his strongest ally and touts Cuba's communist system as a role model, fell victim to El Vacilón.
The irreverent DJs said they started calling Miraflores Palace, the Venezuelan White House, on Friday. About 8 a.m. Monday, using a Cuban-accented woman posing as a Havana operator, they got through to an aide who identified himself as Lt. Arcia.
The secretary said Castro was on the line and wanted to speak to Chávez. Castro's taped voice can be heard in the background, leading the unwitting officer to believe the dictator was really on the line.
PRIVATE LINE
The officer offered to have Chávez call Castro back, but the secretary explained that the Cuban was in a secret location and could not be phoned. The officer gave the radio station the number of Chávez's private line.
''Hello Fidel!'' booms Chávez.
''Did you receive my letter?'' asks Castro.
''Of course I received it,'' replies Chávez. ''I spoke with Germán.'' (Germán Sánchez Otero is the Cuban ambassador to Venezuela, but The Herald could not determine if Chávez was referring to him. A spokesman at Miraflores Palace could not be reached for comment.)
''I'm all set to collaborate with you,'' Castro says.
As the nonsequiturs start, El Vacilón fakes trouble on the line to disguise the rejoinders that don't make sense.
''Yes, brother, how's it going?'' Chávez asks.
''I'll do what you're asking me to,'' Castro replies.
''I don't understand,'' a bewildered Chávez says.
''But I'm going to be harmed, I confess to you,'' Castro says.
Silence from Chávez. Castro goes on: ``Everything's set for Tuesday.''
''Everything's set for Tuesday,'' Chávez repeats, obviously befuddled. ``I don't understand.''
Santos then breaks in and announces they are calling from Miami.
Complete silence from Chávez.
A TIRADE
Santos launches into a tirade: ''Terrorist! Animal! Murderer!'' plus a few choice four-letter nouns. ``You're finishing off the Venezuelan people!''
Santos then hangs up.
Apparently stunned with their success, the duo, both second-generation Cuban Americans, lost their radio composure. They broke into banter in English and put on two CDs at once.
Ferrero said the import of what they had done started to hit them during the dialogue with Chávez.
''We didn't know what to do,'' he said. ``This was a conversation between two presidents. We're waiting for the men in black to show up.''
The station's switchboard lit up with a flood of callers, including the owner, Raúl Alarcón, whom Santos described as ''not very happy.'' Alarcón is chairman of the station's Miami-based parent company, Spanish Broadcasting System.
Alarcón did not return phone calls from The Herald.
Spanish-language media in the United States and the Venezuelan press, which largely opposes Chávez, soon got hold of the story, and Ferrero, 34, and Santos, 28, were barraged with calls.
NOT FIRST TIME
This isn't the first time the radio personalities have ruffled feathers. Last April Fool's Day, they announced an upcoming concert with Julio and Enrique Iglesias and that the first people in line at AmericanAirlines Arena would get free tickets.
After the stadium was inundated with fans, the pair received a three-day suspension -- with pay.
Miami's Spanish-language radio stations often play outlandish practical jokes on the air, and Castro's Cuba is one of their favorite targets.
Hispanic Broadcasting Corp.'s WRTO Salsa 98.3 FM has a segment dubbed Calls to Cuba in which the morning-drive hosts, known as Los Fonomemecos, call businesses and agencies on the island with some ridiculous request or inquiry.
In a recent segment, a DJ posing as a high-ranking Cuban military officer called a Havana funeral home to request a coffin -- for Castro. The mortician burst into sobs.
Chávez, known for his folksy manner, isn't above playing jokes himself.
For the past Day of the Innocents, Latin Americans' version of April Fool's Day that is celebrated Dec. 28, he announced on the radio that he was tired and going to resign. He then changed his tone. ''Ha ha! You fell for it!'' he laughed.
On Monday, however, the joke was on him.
620K income tax. Wow, your income must be out of this world. You and I just became friends, <vbg>
Pass through of dividend income is good news for equity. It won't be long before investment banks create some vehicle for complete tax free income, maybe a unit trust of sorts.
420 million this year? Wow! Funny thing is the 420 money they get is from companies pushing stock instead of products. I guess your right... Carnival Network Barker Channel.
I have not watched CNBC and can't remember the last time it was on my tube. I wonder how Liz C. is looking.
There is no reason what so ever for me to be making the kind of money I'm making while hardly working.... I would not call daytrading hardly working. It's stressful, time consuming and financially dangerous.
Municipal bonds will suffer. XOM is just as safe as any USA town, so stocks will attract municipal money. Question is how much money is willing to go into equity vs guarantee bonds.
At least you covered. I just can't see shorting it here. I will move my stops up until I am taken out. If it gets back to 5.00 I will go short. I enjoyed conversing with you. Your a good sport and gentleman.
Show me the money. <vbg> I will take it anyway.
Are you still holding BRCD.
Posted by: extelecom
In reply to: Smart_Money who wrote msg# 60731 Date: 1/2/2003 11:37:34 AM
I hope so, holding medium sized bag from 4.85.....
et