I had discussed this a while ago on this list. During the discussion, I found out much to my astonishment that the disagreement was rooted in the other side's belief that stock buybacks were only a replacement for the unpaid dividends (those are indeed less important these days). I have just read in a link from pudentbear.com (http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug=BNKS07&date=07- Aug-2000): "America's non-financial firms issued $535 billion of debt last year, mostly to buy other firms or their own equity: In net terms, U.S. firms bought back shares for the sixth year in a row." [despite the high number of IPOs and some huge secondary offerings -my comment] It seems to come from The Economist. Of course this is not what I'd call a trusted source. _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
