Top-Level Insiders Selling Their Stock At Phenomenal Pace

[Jcrowley]

TOP-LEVEL INSIDERS SELLING THEIR STOCK
By PAUL THARP

SALES DEPARTMENT: Execs led by the likes of Microsoft founder Bill Gates...

December 7, 2006 -- America's corporate chiefs are unloading their own stocks at one of the boldest paces in 20 years.

In cases of the very rich, such as Microsoft's Bill Gates and Google's top brass, the executives are selling a whopping $63 for each $1 of stock they bought, says a report by Bloomberg.

In November alone, leaders of public companies dumped $8.4 billion worth of stock they owned as insiders, most of it awarded as compensation, bonuses or other management incentives.

But the vast majority of the executives put their windfall cash to work elsewhere, with just $133 million being plowed back into purchases of more company stock.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12072006/business/top_level_insiders_selling_their_stock_business_paul_tharp.htm

[Why Syzygy]

1. Is this good news?

Can we look at it with a positive view? Or?

[lectrobyte]

10. Kind of like when you are playing poker with a guy named Doc, and

he cashes in all his chips... But seriously: If it's supposedly going to keep going up, then why are these guys cashing out, often taking a big tax hit to do so?

[foo_bar]

25. what's bad for Bill Gates is good for America

To paraphrase Lee Iacocca. The Post is an extended gossip column, Drudge with football scores, but if it's true it means Gates is bearish on micro$oft, not necessarily the domestic economy (unless he spends it all on gold ingots and China Telecom). I dunno about Dreamworks and Seagate, maybe they're co-marketing Windows Vista and "Munich II: This Time It's Personal" (available on Blu-Ray and SATA-2: This Time It's Serial).

[NMDemDist2]

2. K&N - wonder where the $$ is going?

Euros perhaps?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Do they know something we don't know?

If they've put the money into things like gold, I'd say they know the economy is about to crash.

[DemoTex]

4. That is exactly what Ken Lay did prior to the Enron collapse.

Lay sold big blocks of Enron stock every day that the stock market was opened for business for at least 18 months prior to the Enron collapse.

[Hubert Flottz]

23. That's what KB&R is doing now I think.

I know they were trying to unload.

[DemoTex]

28. KB&R. The Viet Nam profiteers. They built my base.

Cam Ranh Bay.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

5. Let's hope that some of the media outlets start being sold off (Murdoch)

then maybe some decent people can start owning the media companies.

[Warpy]

6. Funny, I read this same story about eight years ago

that executives were dumping their stocks as quickly as they were legally able to do so.

I know my pop, many years ago, dumped his company stock in favor of other stocks. He didn't plow his profits back into the company, he sowed them elsewhere (he knew how badly his company was run).

The deal now is that there is a big recession coming, if we're lucky. Some of these guys are undoubtedly sticking their money offshore and expecting to follow it to mansions in Paradise around the Caribbean. Realtors I know in several prime areas say their business is brisk for the upper end houses but stagnant in the ones ordinary folks inhabit.

Putting it into Euros is only a temporary fix, since the Euro is vulnerable to the same problem the buck is: departing manufacturing infrastructure meaning there is nothing holding it up but hot air and wishful thinking.

Men who have spent a couple of decades looting the corporations they've supposedly been employees of fully expect to ride out the coming economic hardship, and most of them will.

However, the fact that they're jumping ship in favor of an island paradise doesn't mean that we can or should follow. Some of us will be able to ride it out, too, and we'll still own something when it's over.
They'll be stuck in the third world, hiding from indictments, and waiting for the next hurricane to trash Paradise.

[Lipton64]

15. The dollar was about a third more valuable than the Euro in 2001.....

now the exact opposite is true.(or was when I checked a few months back) The Euro is now worth about a third more than the dollar. Meaning it takes about $1.30 for every one Euro. And the Canadian dollar used to be worth only about 60 cents and now it's roughly equal if not worth more than the dollar. Central banks around the world from the Middle East to East Asia to Europe and Latin America are slowly reducing their dollar reserves in order to help cushion the shock when the dollar falls apart in the coming years. I've heard China and Japan are trying hard to sell their treasury bonds at a rate that will rid them of them but at the same time not cause a rush on the market that would bankrupt their countries.

The dollar is fucked if nothing is done VERY soon to fix it. Meaning cutting back on debt. Of course that won't be good news for the economy since so much of our "growth" comes from idiots borrowing money and then blowing it.

I'm going gold and then going Asia or Europe and thinking about leaving this country behind if nothing improves soon. I'm glad I don't have kids yet because I would hate to raise them in this coming shit service economy that relies on jobs at Target and McDonalds to fuel economic growth when those jobs don't even pay half of what most well-paid union jobs pay now that are being either outsourced or simply cut.

Remember, Britain had a service economy around WW2 and outsourced its manufacturing overseas and look what happened to it: it lost it's Empire in just 20 years.

I'm scared that may happen to us as well......

[Supersedeas]

7. Shhhhh, nothing to see here---it's Christmas...buy buy buy

[Jcrowley]

8. Kicking

Awareness

[BeHereNow]

9. Kick-

Hang on folks- it's about to get blacker than a stack of crows
in this country...we are in trouble in ways people can't
begin to imagine as far as the economy goes.

The insiders are preparing for the global economy
and guess what?
It doesn't include you and me or any of the other
slave workers and serfs across the world.


BHN

[Missy Vixen]

11. Happy to be the fifth recommendation

I'm wondering why it's suddenly necessary for all these folks to be dumping their stock, hm?

Time to ask the husband once again where the 401K monies are, and try moving them to something relatively safer.

Julie

[DemReadingDU]

12. What is safer?

Bonds? What kind of bonds (short term, long term, gov't treasury?)

Certificates of Deposit?

Money Market mutual funds?

Cash under the mattress?

[Gregorian]

13. I'm looking for the answer to that question as well.

I've always said that the FDIC will fold if we have a big enough problem. Our debt is so large, I can't imagine what will happen when we get in trouble. I know that's all very general and vague.

I know one thing- gold prices are going up for a reason. When Vietnam was at war, and falling apart, people took gold with them. They pulled gold teeth. It's the universal money. I'm not interested in going there, personally. But I mention it because cash might be useless under the circumstances in which one might find themselves. Like if the dollar collapses (whatever collapses might mean).

I think if we ever get into an extreme situation with the economy, money will be the last thing we're going to be thinking about. Still, I would like to find the best path to follow. It almost seems like the mattress isn't all that bad.

[Missy Vixen]

16. I think he should put the money in precious metals

for a little while. Who knows? I'm with you. I just know we lost our shirt during the last market "correction", and we could have used that money.

Julie

[radwriter0555]

20. precious metals peaked ages ago and are dropping. Investing in emerging markets that

have strong hopes like South America and Eastern Europe is what everyone is doing.

Gold hype is just gold hype and ridiculous. By the time John Q. Public has fallen prey to the BUY GOLD speil, there is far too little up margin left for genuine profit.

[Missy Vixen]

27. Thank you, radwriter

I'll ask him if they have an option like that among his 401K choices. I just want to put it somewhere it's not going to get decimated. Again.

Julie

[roguevalley]

17. i heard someone on radio saying cd's are the way to go.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. Where are they putting their money if not in stocks?

Don't tell me they're buying land in Paraguay.

[rman]

22. It should be interesting to see how they invest it,

if they invest it at all.

[DemReadingDU]

24. It's not real clear from the article where the profits are going

Bill Gates...putting a big chunk of his wealth to work in a not-for-profit foundation.

That's fine if you're Gates, but I need my savings protected, in case of emergencies...and I have to buy a new furnace, or car, or food. I can't afford to lose what I have saved.

[lyonn]

29. To quote article:

"Gates has been selling shares regularly - including $2.1 billion last year - as he whittles down his once mammoth stake, putting a big chunk of his wealth to work in a not-for-profit foundation that invests in a wide range of securities and other deals."

Who knows what that means since he is one of the riches men in the world. Does it have to do with taxes? Or, he has enough investments?

When the NY Post prints anything ya gotta wonder??

[nicknameless]

18. I've been wondering where the dollar is going to go now.

With Dems in office, the economy should improve, which should increase the dollar's value.
BUT... With Dems in office, what fiscal realities will now be hitting the fan?
The cabal has cloaked so much of their fleecing in secrecy, what financial horrors will we be learning about come January?

[kineneb]

19. ship is sinking, rats are leaving...

sounds like the poop is about to hit the rapidly rotating object. Wonder when China, et al are going to start dumping dollars?

Out here in the country, stockpiling canned goods, since that is the only commodity we can afford to save. Want some canned sardines with those crackers?

[OneBlueSky]

21. worst possible kind of news . . . these people are in the know . . .

and they can see what's coming . . .

[jazzjunkysue]

26. Thanks. I had $1,100 in a stock and I just dumped it. Time to sell.

Thanks for the heads up. I need to make sure I don't lose that $. I made a couple hundred. Done.