The art of writing the press release...

[John Ranalletta]

"Despite a very difficult pricing environment, macroeconomic turmoil and the impact on consumer purchasing, we delivered sequential revenue growth in Q4. However, we are very disappointed with our bottom line results, which included significant asset impairment and inventory related charges."

Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear or read instead:

 

"We sold more, but it cost us more; and, we wrote off a lot of worthless crap in inventory; so, all in all, we lost our ass. We'll try not to let that happen again, but it's anybody's guess."

[roadscholar]

"I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood me"...Alan Greenspan

 

[Tasker]

"I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood me"...Alan Greenspan

 

 

Bill, that's beautiful and I'd not seen or heard it.

 

John, keep your day-job.

[Mark K]

"I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood me"...Alan Greenspan

 

 

Can that be an accurate quote?

[Mike O]

I love these*....

 

"All of this has required us to aggressively re-architect our cost structure....The leadership team and I have gone line-by-line to reduce costs while considering every decision through the prism of our values and culture."

 

Translated:

 

"You're getting laid off."

 

Sometimes I think the folks that write this truly believe that the MBA-speak softens the blow.

 

Mike O

 

*From Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to his employees.

[roadscholar]

"I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood me"...Alan Greenspan

 

 

Can that be an accurate quote?

 

He's got more quotes than Yogi Berra ("I never said most of the things I said") and Yosemite Sam ("When I say whoa I mean WHOA") combined.

 

Actually a lot more, mainly because the world would hang on his every word, trying to read his mind. It's listed as one of many.

 

This stand-alone quote was removed from it's original context so he may have been referring to something more specific than general at the time.

 

 

[roadscholar]

"I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood me"...Alan Greenspan

 

 

Bill, that's beautiful and I'd not seen or heard it.

 

Tasker, indeed a surprising bit of candor, or maybe just his version of some smoke and mirrors.

[John Ranalletta]

Tasker, indeed a surprising bit of candor, or maybe just his version of some smoke and mirrors.

I suspect he didn't have a clue at the time. In retrospect, the facts prove he did not.

[KMG_365]

Tasker, indeed a surprising bit of candor, or maybe just his version of some smoke and mirrors.

I suspect he didn't have a clue at the time. In retrospect, the facts prove he did not.

Oooooooh! That one's not gonna bail out!

[Bud]

"Despite a very difficult pricing environment, macroeconomic turmoil and the impact on consumer purchasing, we delivered sequential revenue growth in Q4. However, we are very disappointed with our bottom line results, which included significant asset impairment and inventory related charges."

Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear or read instead:

 

"We sold more, but it cost us more; and, we wrote off a lot of worthless crap in inventory; so, all in all, we lost our ass. We'll try not to let that happen again, but it's anybody's guess."

 

What, and have the stock go belly up!!!!! The market punishes those who tell the truth.

[roadscholar]

Tasker, indeed a surprising bit of candor, or maybe just his version of some smoke and mirrors.

I suspect he didn't have a clue at the time. In retrospect, the facts prove he did not.

 

I think he had a clue:

 

"There are no easy choices. Easy choices are long gone."

 

"If we delay, the adjustments could be abrubt and painful."

 

"There's potential for individual disaster there."

 

"could prove destabilizing to our financial system as a whole and in the end could seriously diminish the availability of home mortgage funds."

 

"an accident waiting to happen".

 

Yes, a real train wreck, the point is he's said a lot of different things at different times and has admitted to not fully grasping the scope of the collision. Retrospect is easy, predicting the future and changing it isn't.

 

[John Ranalletta]

Retrospect is easy, predicting the future and changing it isn't.

It seems you're willing to let him off the hook. I'm not because understanding and predicting economic trends and events was his primary mandate.

 

The enabling legislation for the Fed has as one of its prime directives, the prevention of asset bubbles. We had tech and real estate bubbles that left investors in shambles.

 

IMO, the entire fed, all of its presidents (including Geitner) were/are malfeasant, guilty of dereliction of duty and should be summarily fired.

 

In fact, I don't see a reason for its existence. The US Treasury shouldn't have to borrow the money it spends.

[roadscholar]

I don't disagree with any of that. Not sure I'm letting him off the hook, but his position had acquired so much power that any drastic action he took may or may not have triggered the same results, there wasn't a formula.

 

Speculative bubbles are tricky, one minute they're big and fat, and the next they're popped. I have a more intimate understanding since being adversly affected by one. Not the two most recent but the collector car meltdown of the late eighties, when losing 50% of your assets in a matter of weeks was considered fortunate. It was caused by the same things that likely caused the others; greed, fraud, uninformed latecomers, and uh, "irrational exuberance".