And you people thought Bill Gates was powerful

sMiLeYz

Platinum Member
Feb 3, 2003
2,696
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Bill Gates is a software tycoon not a investor/trader dealing with currencies.

Soros is right, the administration's fiscal and economic policies have been nothing short of disasterious, thus weakening the dollar to a point where he has no choice but to bet against it.

 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
17,133
38
91
the weak dollar is a boon for american exporters. Soros hates a weak dollar because he now has little choice but to invest in the euro, because it has higher interest rates, hence higher returns. But the Eurozone economy is doing far worse than the US economy, which makes EU fiscal and monetary policy asinine.

EDIT: WIth that said, the dollar has an evergrowing deficit, which means other economies have to offload the burden carried by the US for so long. We can't sustain a big deficit for so long without their being catastrophic effects. Basically, all the major and minor economies, including China, have to go through major reforms in order for us not to be the world's only marketplace:

China: reform their finance market. Deregulate other industries. Unping the yuan from the dollar. Make the yuan more convertable.

Japan: Massive reform in the financial/banking industry needed. need to tackle deflation badly

South Korea: Most painful reforms have been dealt with. Now it's time to tackle the chaebols.

Continental Europe: Massive reform needed in labor market. Need serious pension and fiscal reforms.

United Kingdom: Job well done.

Eastern Europe: Need to stay on the path of fiscal/market reform

Russia: Law and order a must for credibility to be gained and investment to return. Reform of natural resources

South America: Need to lower/manage debt better.

North America: Job well done.

South East Asia: Reforms promised in 1997/1998 haven't been met or carried out fully

 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Originally posted by: sMiLeYz
Bill Gates is a software tycoon not a investor/trader dealing with currencies.

Soros is right, the administration's fiscal and economic policies have been nothing short of disasterious, thus weakening the dollar to a point where he has no choice but to bet against it.

I never differentiated them between industries. They are both powerful in their own rights, it's just that Gates generally gets more of the press.

And I'd like you to point out how any of the economic policies have been "nothing short of disasterious".
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Looks like some very rich peoples arn't buying the Snow Job comming out of the White House.
 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
17,133
38
91
Originally posted by: Carbonyl
Looks like some very rich peoples arn't buying the Snow Job comming out of the White House.

he's not buying it because it doesn't make any money for him.
rolleye.gif
 

ReiAyanami

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2002
4,466
0
0
if you believe how much more powerful bill gates is, take a look at your desktop. there's a 95% chance it belongs to him

and about your web browser...
 

Spyro

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2001
3,366
0
0
Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
if you believe how much more powerful bill gates is, take a look at your desktop. there's a 95% chance it belongs to him

and about your web browser...

Well, I guess I'm part of that 5% :D

Oh and BTW, My windows computers don't *belong* to Billy G. either :p
 

LunarRay

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2003
9,993
1
76
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: sMiLeYz
Bill Gates is a software tycoon not a investor/trader dealing with currencies.

Soros is right, the administration's fiscal and economic policies have been nothing short of disasterious, thus weakening the dollar to a point where he has no choice but to bet against it.

I never differentiated them between industries. They are both powerful in their own rights, it's just that Gates generally gets more of the press.

And I'd like you to point out how any of the economic policies have been "nothing short of disasterious".

Maybe not disaterious but, not effective. If they were effective then we were much worse off that any one admitted to. So they either didn't know how bad things were or they lied. If they didn't know how bad I ask why. If they lied I ask why. Either way we are not too well off today compared to the ideal.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
if you believe how much more powerful bill gates is, take a look at your desktop. there's a 95% chance it belongs to him

and about your web browser...

Did you read the article? The guy practically effected a major country's economy by one choice he made. At least with my desktop and browser I can choose something else.
 

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
Originally posted by: HJD1
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: sMiLeYz
Bill Gates is a software tycoon not a investor/trader dealing with currencies.

Soros is right, the administration's fiscal and economic policies have been nothing short of disasterious, thus weakening the dollar to a point where he has no choice but to bet against it.

I never differentiated them between industries. They are both powerful in their own rights, it's just that Gates generally gets more of the press.

And I'd like you to point out how any of the economic policies have been "nothing short of disasterious".

Maybe not disaterious but, not effective. If they were effective then we were much worse off that any one admitted to. So they either didn't know how bad things were or they lied. If they didn't know how bad I ask why. If they lied I ask why. Either way we are not too well off today compared to the ideal.

You are making the assumption that the current state of the economy is a direct result of current administration policies - policies that have only been in implementation for a year and a half. I don't buy that argument.

I would also like to know what bad things you are eluding to that happen to be the direct result of the current administration's policies.
 

SinfulWeeper

Diamond Member
Sep 2, 2000
4,567
11
81
All it would take for M$ and Gates to fall is one good OS. People seem to think M$ is worth billions when in fact they are not.
 

LunarRay

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2003
9,993
1
76
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: HJD1
Originally posted by: CPA
Originally posted by: sMiLeYz
Bill Gates is a software tycoon not a investor/trader dealing with currencies.

Soros is right, the administration's fiscal and economic policies have been nothing short of disasterious, thus weakening the dollar to a point where he has no choice but to bet against it.

I never differentiated them between industries. They are both powerful in their own rights, it's just that Gates generally gets more of the press.

And I'd like you to point out how any of the economic policies have been "nothing short of disasterious".

Maybe not disaterious but, not effective. If they were effective then we were much worse off that any one admitted to. So they either didn't know how bad things were or they lied. If they didn't know how bad I ask why. If they lied I ask why. Either way we are not too well off today compared to the ideal.

You are making the assumption that the current state of the economy is a direct result of current administration policies - policies that have only been in implementation for a year and a half. I don't buy that argument.

I would also like to know what bad things you are eluding to that happen to be the direct result of the current administration's policies.

I said not effective. Fiscal policy hardly can be in the short term. Monitary policy can.
some info to wonder about
 

LunarRay

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2003
9,993
1
76
I subscribe to the Keynesian shcool of economic thought.
Keynesian defined


So I see things with that bias. If you don't agree with Keynesian theory then we won't agree and it is a waste to agrue the point. Which end of the egg or are the lilliputians not germain?

A watch, in the same manner, that falls behind above two minutes in a day, is despised by one curious in watches. He sells it perhaps for a couple of guineas, and purchases another at fifty, which will not lose above a minute in a fortnight. The sole use of watches however, is to tell us what o'clock it is, and to hinder us from breaking any engagement, or suffering any other inconveniency by our ignorance in that particular point. But the person so nice with regard to this machine, will not always be found either more scrupulously punctual than other men, or more anxiously concerned upon any other account, to know precisely what time of day it is. What interests him is not so much the attainment of this piece of knowledge, as the perfection of the machine which serves to attain it.

 

glenn1

Lifer
Sep 6, 2000
25,383
1,013
126
People seem to think M$ is worth billions when in fact they are not.

Hate to break this to you, but Microsoft IS worth billions, lots of them in fact. The company has over $40 billion in CASH sitting on its balance sheets. If as of this instant, MSFT never sold another product, just the interest earnings on cash would make it one of the highest income grossing companies in the world. To put $40 billion into perspective, that's a little over triple the gross domestic product of Iceland. It's almost the total worth of all the goods exported from Japan in 2002.

Soros hates a weak dollar because he now has little choice but to invest in the euro, because it has higher interest rates, hence higher returns.

I don't think that Soros feels any special consideration one way or the other related to the dollar. He simply judges it on its on merits just like any other investment, just as if i shorted pork belly futures, that doesn't mean i hate pigs.
 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
17,133
38
91
Originally posted by: glenn1
People seem to think M$ is worth billions when in fact they are not.

Hate to break this to you, but Microsoft IS worth billions, lots of them in fact. The company has over $40 billion in CASH sitting on its balance sheets. If as of this instant, MSFT never sold another product, just the interest earnings on cash would make it one of the highest income grossing companies in the world. To put $40 billion into perspective, that's a little over triple the gross domestic product of Iceland. It's almost the total worth of all the goods exported from Japan in 2002.

Soros hates a weak dollar because he now has little choice but to invest in the euro, because it has higher interest rates, hence higher returns.

I don't think that Soros feels any special consideration one way or the other related to the dollar. He simply judges it on its on merits just like any other investment, just as if i shorted pork belly futures, that doesn't mean i hate pigs.

that's why I said he hates a weak dollar, not the dollar. If he was betting against it, that would be another story.
 

Ltroy24

Member
Mar 4, 2003
43
0
0
No one have more effect on the econemmy than Alan Greenspan. Investors take his every word and twist it and cruch it. When it is know he is going to be talking the stock market is very quiet until he does.

Luke:cool:
 

Antoneo

Diamond Member
May 25, 2001
3,911
0
0
Originally posted by: Ltroy24
No one have more effect on the econemmy than Alan Greenspan. Investors take his every word and twist it and cruch it. When it is know he is going to be talking the stock market is very quiet until he does.

Luke:cool:
Didn't he say "irrational exuberance" or am I confusing him with someone else?
 

SinfulWeeper

Diamond Member
Sep 2, 2000
4,567
11
81
Hate to break this to you, but Microsoft IS worth billions, lots of them in fact. The company has over $40 billion in CASH sitting on its balance sheets. If as of this instant, MSFT never sold another product, just the interest earnings on cash would make it one of the highest income grossing companies in the world. To put $40 billion into perspective, that's a little over triple the gross domestic product of Iceland. It's almost the total worth of all the goods exported from Japan in 2002.

Sorry again. While they do have money saved up. They ride on dangerous grounds. You can not include their software as a value to the company. All it would take is a good set of software from a competeing company. Then what becomes the value of MS? Only the value of their property... which does not come close to equaling 1 billion.
Face it, all a CD is worth is less than a dime from their production costs. Their XBox has been a money loser since day 1. I am not certain about their other hardware that they offer. If their OS becomes obsolite, their stock would deminish... all that is left is their property. Which as I said, would not be worth a billion.
 

Zebo

Elite Member
Jul 29, 2001
39,398
19
81
Originally posted by: SinfulWeeper
Hate to break this to you, but Microsoft IS worth billions, lots of them in fact. The company has over $40 billion in CASH sitting on its balance sheets. If as of this instant, MSFT never sold another product, just the interest earnings on cash would make it one of the highest income grossing companies in the world. To put $40 billion into perspective, that's a little over triple the gross domestic product of Iceland. It's almost the total worth of all the goods exported from Japan in 2002.

Sorry again. While they do have money saved up. They ride on dangerous grounds. You can not include their software as a value to the company. All it would take is a good set of software from a competeing company. Then what becomes the value of MS? Only the value of their property... which does not come close to equaling 1 billion.
Face it, all a CD is worth is less than a dime from their production costs. Their XBox has been a money loser since day 1. I am not certain about their other hardware that they offer. If their OS becomes obsolite, their stock would deminish... all that is left is their property. Which as I said, would not be worth a billion.

Exactly MS is a pyramid scheme Looses money every year, but thier war chest is created by way overvalued selling stock. BTW- Glenn is'nt a company which does'nt pay dividens have no value by difinition? Stange how people are thinking nowerdays:p


DARI- It was a joke, you know "snow job" and whos the treas secretary?
 

BarneyFife

Diamond Member
Aug 12, 2001
3,875
0
76
Originally posted by: SinfulWeeper
All it would take for M$ and Gates to fall is one good OS. People seem to think M$ is worth billions when in fact they are not.

Hah! I had my laugh of the day.
 

SinfulWeeper

Diamond Member
Sep 2, 2000
4,567
11
81
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Originally posted by: SinfulWeeper
All it would take for M$ and Gates to fall is one good OS. People seem to think M$ is worth billions when in fact they are not.

Hah! I had my laugh of the day.

Same here... I know, I had my laugh also. Isn't cool that all it takes is one smart kid?...

I mean fu*k I seen these kids in school. They are the geek's that no one likes... But these no'bodies seem to have all the backing... in computing to get reid of the "evil". I guess that is nothing when money is backed up though...
 

glenn1

Lifer
Sep 6, 2000
25,383
1,013
126
BTW- Glenn is'nt a company which does'nt pay dividens have no value by difinition?

The "value" of anything is worth exactly what someone else is willing to pay you for it, so by that measure Microsoft is worth a lot. Microsoft does technically pay a dividend (although it's only $0.08/share) and has all that cash on book (about $4/share), so by any metric it does have intrinsic value. The marketplace doesn't only look at what the current dividend stream is, but also factors in the discounted current value of potential dividend streams that the company would be able to support. By its pricing of Microsoft shares, the market seems to think that the value of present and possible future discounted cash flows via dividend streams or outright return of capital is about $24/share, giving Mister Softee a market capitalization of about $260 billion.

I do agree with you though, that a stock which doesn't pay a current dividend or pays a token one isn't worth my time. We could argue until we're blue in the face what the "true" value of Microsoft is, but the market as a whole has already made up its mind. That any one individual (such as me) disagrees with its conclusion is a moot point. If i think Microsoft shares are overvalued, my recourse is to not buy them. I do and don't, respectively.