I hate adding to a political thread but I can't let this one go uncorrected. Be careful about ascribing the economic circumstances of the late '90s to Clinton. He had attempted to ram through a huge expansion in Federal spending with his (and Hillary's) proposed nationalized healthcare plan when he had his head handed to him in the '94 midterms and a newly Republican-led Congress forced him to accept budgetary discipline in the form of massive changes to welfare. He became a fan when he realized which way the political winds were blowing and when his advisors became fixated with what effect budgetary policy had on bond yields (check out Bob Woodward's excellent book, The Agenda). I always find it amazing that the conventional wisdom now holds that it was Clinton that balanced the budget but, as they say, history is written by the winners.
That having been said moneyguy, I am in total agreement with you regarding the consequences of our current budget policy. As a conservative, I'm appalled by Bush's spending; he's been as bad as the most liberal tax&spend Democrat and there's going to have to be a reckoning in the years ahead that will be painful in direct proportion to the length of time it's delayed. O.K., whew! I'm off my political soap box.
Back to the subject at hand, I have my doubts about an NNRI breakout but if we can get solidly above a dollar on volume I'll feel a little better about it. We've had some of these head fakes before so I'm still unconvinced. Ultimately, it's still going to come down to the fundamentals: Atoll equity accounting, ensuing BB listing followed by financing necessary to complete Velkont acquisition, and visibility on Fee/Biecom sales. If these things happen, the TA will take care of itself.