[PEN-L:256] Re: What does the stock market mean

[boddhisatva <kbevans@xxxxxxxxx>]

		About the Microsoft market capitilization:


	I think it's good to remmeber that Microsoft represents the
passing of the golden torch of monopoly from IBM.  Even Microsoft's
conflict with thte FTC about "bundling" reminds one of IBM's conflict with
the government. Intellectual property is not the issue so much, especially
considering that Microsoft copied or bought most of its basic concepts.

	What I think it represents is the shift from the corporation as
conglomerate answerable only to itself and the corporation as fungible
property.  Microsoft and Intel are part of the trend away from dividend
dispersements and towards valuation only through speculation in the equity
marketplace.  Microsoft and Intel may have their bureaucracies, etc. but
they were forged in a different furnace from GE.  They represent more
straightforward plays on industrial trends.




	peace