Do CEOs lie to boost their stock????

B

BlueHorseshoe

I know ... its a ridiculous question - we all know they do. I wanted to draw contrast with another ridiculous thread on this board "Do reporters front-run hedgies?" Perhaps only in contrast is the ridiculous nature of the other thread apparent. Some comments below:

1. The other OP has it backwards - HFs front-run reporters, and that is a good thing. Otherwise there would be no incentive to get alternate views out into the market - views alternate to CEO's dishonest or delusional propaganda.

2. HFs that identify dishonest or incompetent CEOs with overpriced stock do not have the bully pulpit CEOs enjoy. CEOs are on their quarterly conference calls, issuing press releases, attending investor conferences, spewing their utter nonsense, all in the effort to boost their compensation by raping investors. Who is more honest, a CEO who runs his own propaganda show, or a HF manager who works to get out an alternate view via third-party, professional reporters??

Here is what Buffett said of short-sellers: "Its a tough way to make a living." A HF manager's greatest asset, and only real hope, is the incompetence and dishonesty of a corporate CEO. A CEO of a terrible business, IF HE IS HONEST with his shareholders, would never be targetted by shorts.

Let's not allow ET to be used as a bully pulpit for dishonest and incompetent CEOs, and their acolytes. Perhaps we begin to use this thread to catalogue lies by CEOS.
 
Of course they do. General Electric used their financial division to shuffle paper around in and out of the commerical paper market to deliver their earnings numbers every quarter. Pretty funny how when the commercial paper market froze up GE missed. It's all one big accounting gimmick.
 
The only thing this proves -- and I say this as a fan of Buffett -- is Buffett doesn't know much about the market beyond fundamentals. There are plenty of reasons for shorting a stock other than incompetent management.

Quote from BlueHorseshoe:

Here is what Buffett said of short-sellers: "Its a tough way to make a living." A HF manager's greatest asset, and only real hope, is the incompetence and dishonesty of a corporate CEO. A CEO of a terrible business, IF HE IS HONEST with his shareholders, would never be targetted by shorts.
More...
 
I had some money in a tech stock ( sorry forget which one now its been 10 years ) & the price of the stock dropped 20% in 1 day on no news. The CEO held a press conference the next day & told the bagholders not to worry, everything was fine, earnings were right on track etc.

Well earnings came out & instead of a .48 cent profit they showed a 2.00+ loss.

Turns out they lost a major contract & the insiders & the select few funds they let in on it were selling hand over fist while telling bagholders everything was a-ok. I learned the hard way to never ever trust what the ceo says.
 
Seems to me almost all CEO's are full of sh*t.

Any nitwit can tell the truth, those guys make the big bucks to lie with a straight face.

You aint figured that out yet, clowns?
 
Paying People to Lie: Modeling Executive Compensation in the Presence of Information Manipulation

"This paper develops an agency model to analyze the optimality of executive stock option compensation in the presence of information manipulation. The model shows that although stock options do induce more information manipulation..."

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=970516

------------------------

I understand the op point but thought I'd put this link for other reading. fwiw.
 
Quote from ProfitTakgFool:

Of course they do. General Electric used their financial division to shuffle paper around in and out of the commerical paper market to deliver their earnings numbers every quarter. Pretty funny how when the commercial paper market froze up GE missed. It's all one big accounting gimmick.
More...
Let's also not forget about their propaganda machine, CNBC and all their whores!
 
Quote from ProfitTakgFool:

It's all one big accounting gimmick.
More...

Any big cap with a developed Finance unit falls into this.

Most earnings are just paper earnings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top