<HTML>In a message dated 7/23/2002 8:01:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time, joanna.bujes@ebay.sun.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">>Since most of the >companies, particularly the ones in the telecom sector (4 of which - Global >Crossing, Adelphia, NTL, and WorldCom make the all time top 10 bankruptcy >list), are comprised of almost worthless assets due to immense over-capacity >post dereg in 1996, the banks have little hope of retrieving anything, even >after long drawn out bankruptcy court hearings. You know, it's hard to believe all this is just "accidental". I mean, how can you build 98% more than what you need....and not notice?  I mean, how can you call a system "efficient" that does this? And, all in all, it reminds me of the S&L bailout ...which was also a crisis of overinvestment in commercial real estate. Now, that was done on the back of FDIC-guaranteed acounts (i.e. the taxpayer). This is being done on the back of ...pension plans/retirement accounts? </BLOCKQUOTE> The combination of deregulation (and it was global - in '96 by the Clintonians, '98 by the WTO) and gleeful capital raising by WallStreet created capacity glut. The total bankruptcies in teleco are now 4X those in the S&L crisis. And if AT&T falls will be 7X. If you take a look at the biggest fiber optic culprit - Global Crossing - you'll see a company run by an ex-Drexel Burnham junk bond salesman, who couldn't give a shit about growth, employees, or investors if he could cash out quickly (Gary Winnick made $750mln, his cronies another $4.5bln, his company shredded more docs than Enron and he's yet to be invited in front of the SEC.) The system was geared to short term gain over long term viability - a massive corporation - Wall Street collusion. The fees raised for mergers, acquisitions and debt underwriting for the telecom industry alone totaled $13bln. The WorldCom- MCI merger, which was opposed by every single consumer group, netted Wall Street $70mln. Corporations raised debt because they could. In the case of companies that were investment grade (at one time) like Enron and WorldCom - pension funds and retirement funds who followed bond indices had no choice but to buy. State pension funds (like NY, CA,) are going the class action suit route. <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Oh, and one more thing, since the capitalists are doing so well at destroying capital, why do they need a war? To contain the political fallout? </BLOCKQUOTE> They couldn't have been more sytematic at destroying capital if they planned it. And still no meaningful sounds of reform from the Hill. Nomi </HTML>