Jun. 01, 2002 - 23:12 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Reach Out And Touch ?

Guess I am just a cranky old poop and can't see any sense to what is going on in the corporate world. The AT&T Bell system was broken up because of the thought it might be monopolistic. May be so it was, but if a company owned a system and wanted to string telephone wires and put in a telephone exchange certain assurances (franchises) would have to be given that their possessions wouldn't be arbitrarily taken from them and given to someone else. Now it seems that the Baby Bells (ting-a-ling) want to go into one of the places left to AT&T, long lines -- long distance phone service -- while blocking AT&T from going into local service.

So what is new in the world ? Baby kills papa and does his thing. Now what used to be Mountain Bell, later called US West after the grand breakup was bought and the name changed again to Qwest (damned fools can't even spell) "The buyer's minions came in with the idea that the old US WEST management didn't know boo about running a business." (paraphrased from Carroll's column)

Now Qwest's bonds are given a 'junk' rating and they want to sell what once was called USWestDex, the unit that assembled and printed the telephone directories to pick up some pocket chage and maybe change their bond rating to 'iffy.'

Vincent Carroll the Editor of the Ediotorial pages at the Rocky Mountain News ran a column giving some dope on the situation.

He says in part, "I recall how Jseph Nacchio, Afshan Mohebbi and Drake Tempest -- today respectivily, the company's chairman, president and general counsel -- could barely conceal their disdain for US WEST management."

So, now down the road a bit Qwest is in trouble, they can't handle what they already bought and are trying to sell part of the corporate body to bring up a bit of spare change to bail out ? ? ? Hah, yeah riiight !

Carroll says, "Why was it so difficult for the Qwest upstarts to publicly acknowledge the achievement of their US WEST counter parts ? "In victory, magnanimity' insisted Churchill, who as usual had the right idea."

Carroll goes on to mention that, "Nacchio would be a far more sympathetic figure today had he demonstrated any signs of graciousness or humility when it might have mattered -- not just toward US WEST management, but in regard to his preposterous outsized compensation as well (he pocketed $100 million last year while his company's stock tanked by 64 percent. Instead, he has gone out of his way to tell one and all why he deserves every penny. 'I'm neither apologizing for (the bonanza) or embarrassed by it,' he said a year ago, adding snappishly that 'I should be allowed to make more than a second baseman. I create more value than they do.'"

I leave Mr Carroll's column now which goes into decent philosophical matters.

I have interspersed Carroll's remarks with some of mine along the way and should probably leave it at that. BUT Qwest is who sends me my bill. Makes me wonder how long I will have telephone service at my place. How long will it be an acceptable service ? What next ?

To me all these stock options and huge what are called salaries PLUS the condemned 'golden parachutes' should be classified as criminal when said head is leading or misleading a corporation that is bleeding money at every pore. To my way of thought the salary should be pegged to the profit the leader of the group causes to happen. And also to me the stock option bit seems to be just a way of hiding his income. Of course if the company goes bust his stock crashes and burns -- but still the smart (but not smart enough to run a company) CEO's and cohorts manage to sell a bunch of their stock before it goes under.

It seems to me that the stockholders are after higher dividends than the state of the corporation warrants, too. It just keeps happening in one damn case after another.

Are they are after my pocket book when they Reach Out And Touch ? . . . . . . .

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