"Gimme yo $$$$$$$$$!!!!"
Posted on 08/12/2002 6:45:30 AM PDT by SJackson
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:46:53 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
These days, Vincent Galluccio spends most afternoons at the wheel of a tractor, overseeing his $5.2 million Long Island vineyard, Galluccio Family Winery. Just two years ago, Mr. Galluccio was one of thousands of executives overseeing a different product: telecommunications.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
"Gimme yo $$$$$$$$$!!!!"
Articles like these tend to excite those people who think "some of these people just have too much money", which is just envy. People in the market who wish to make informed decisions should check the disclosures found in newspapers every day on insider transactions. A possible improvement? Have the SEC publish a daily listing of all corporate officer transactions (involving their own company). The broker could file the info at the same time the transaction takes place. It would be an enormous document, but it would have the info for those careful enough to know that the market doesn't work by magic. Does something like this exist now?
I think the answer is greed
If no laws were broken why all the anger and resentment? The problem, IMHO, is envy--the second deadly sin. Chaucer believed it was the worst sin. Mark (10:15?)indicated that Christ was crucified when he was delivered up out of envy. Melanie Klein, an exemplary and world renknown psychoanalyst, wrote many papers on envy and concluded it was one of the hardest problems to help.
A lot of what goes on as business and political criticism including that of Terry McAuliffe, is nothing but envy. The dynamics are easy to see: first, there is a recognition of something worthy --in this case money; second, there is a peasant conviction that there is a limited supply of money and what one receives must be taken from others; third, there is a resentment which includes the absolute destruction of that person that is envied.
Whole nations and political systems have been destroyed or changed for the worst out of envy. Theologically or psychologically it is one of the most difficult emotions to deal with in a mature and positive way. Emulation is one solution many try. Others, deny they are envious, by avoiding all efforts to achieve what is envied. The levelling effect of old age helps many to see past this problem and make changes before it is too late.
I would tend to agree with you. And where laws were broken, the perps should be prosecuted rather than adding another layer of laws.
"What prevented all the people who 'lost' money from selling their shares?
I think you address one area that should be addressed. Many employees accumulate large blocks of stock in ESOPS, as a part of their retirement plans which in many (most) cases they are unable to sell until age 55. That kind of forced concentration flies in the face of financial prudence.
For companies who provide stock as part of their compensation, it is in their best interest to restrict the options on sale. It is not as if those employees, such as Enron's, entered into the employment agreement NOT knowing these rules. The Enron employees who were counting solely on their Enron stock for retirement were foolish, but they weren't screwed. The only thing "forced" about their high concentration of Enron stock were their ridiculous pleadings of poverty at the hands of corporate tyrants. They had every opportunity to defer a percentage of their salary into diverse vehicles, on top of the Enron stock freebies.
Funny how no one is asking the average Enron employee to return wages earned while the books were cooked. They would have been unemployed years before.....
IMO, given the probability of a partially insolvent social security program in the next few decades, companies should be encouraged to provide saving and retirement vehicles for their employees. But I don’t think allowing companies to require this level of concentration is in either the employees or the nations, and we fund the tax deferral as a matter of public policy, best interest. Actually, this is a feature you’ll probably see changed.
From the introductory paragraph to the first volume,
"Some delusions, though notorious to all the world, have subsisted for ages, flourishing as widely among civilized and polished nations as among the early barbarians with whom they originated... Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper... Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
A primitive African bush witch doctor would have grown green with envy over modern means of conning the suckers. (Comment borrowed, somewhere from Malcolm Muggeridge.)
Well, I'm hoping senses are recovered "slowly, and one by one." :-)
Lack of inside information?
By definition, all information is 'inside information'. You're betting that you know more than the guy who is selling to you or buying from you.
Everyone on up the ladder is trading on what, and who, they know.
The positively crazy thing about all of this is that you can be prosecuted for acting on what you know.
Insane!
Actually, I benefited quite handily from an ESOP. I worked for ABC/Cap Cities when it was bought out by Disney in the 90s. I had been putting a reasonable amount each paycheck into the ESOP fund.
The deal there was that you would have the right to buy stock at 15% below the closing price either this April 1st or last April 1st. For example, if today is April 1st and the stock is trading at $150 and last April 1st it was at $100, you could buy today for $85. Obviously in an uptrend you would do quite well.
The only hitch was you had to hold it for two years (a sale at that time would incur only long-term capital gains); selling it after only one year meant short-term gains, selling in less than a year meant you paid ordinary income tax.
I personally know several people who became millionaires this way.
In my case the kicker was that Warren Buffett engineered the deal so that he got all Disney stock for his ABC stock. I had to take cash for stock that I held outright, and paid more to Uncle Sam than I would have cared to.
But I'm not complaining; with all the splits and the discounted price I did really, really well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.