02-04-2002, 02:38 PM
What is up with these fears of accounting problems?
If you want to see real "accounting problems," go to Amazon.com, where they've never made any money.
In truth, nobody cares what the numbers are, so long as they believe in the model.
All people seem to be saying is "Hmmmmm, maybe you shouldn't have put it like that, now that we see maybe these long-term assumptions aren't going to pan out after all."
Analysts could have been given any set of numbers, and they still would have seen what they wanted to see. They'd have said "This is how they reported it. But this is how we should look at it, given how much money this can be expected to generate over the long run!"
You can report X earnings, and they'll pay 60 times earnings, or you can report 2X earnings, and they'll pay 30 times earnings, so what?
And it doesn't matter if X is xero. When it comes right down to it, people thought Enron was kinda cool, and everything on the balance sheet was supposed to rise in value and take care of itself.
leroy
If you want to see real "accounting problems," go to Amazon.com, where they've never made any money.
In truth, nobody cares what the numbers are, so long as they believe in the model.
All people seem to be saying is "Hmmmmm, maybe you shouldn't have put it like that, now that we see maybe these long-term assumptions aren't going to pan out after all."
Analysts could have been given any set of numbers, and they still would have seen what they wanted to see. They'd have said "This is how they reported it. But this is how we should look at it, given how much money this can be expected to generate over the long run!"
You can report X earnings, and they'll pay 60 times earnings, or you can report 2X earnings, and they'll pay 30 times earnings, so what?
And it doesn't matter if X is xero. When it comes right down to it, people thought Enron was kinda cool, and everything on the balance sheet was supposed to rise in value and take care of itself.
leroy