<p>FS,</p>
<p>Wasn’t truly Christian of me, was it?</p>
<p>Am I now to count myself among the “left-liberal [pardon the redundancy] wits and raconteurs…” with your blessings? Wow, what future honors await me?! Could it be you are returning a compliment I gave you a long time ago? Forgive me, but what impelled me to do so does not come to mind at the moment…</p>
<p>If I shop around I can fly coast to coast for under $400 RT. I have seen some similar bargain fares to Europe from time to time around that amount too. The $199 RT was certainly a limited deal too. 30 years ago a decent house in LA sold for $60,000–now it’s at least 600K. Flying is still cheap by comparison if you shop around in advance.</p>
<p>Best we could find last year, when we flew to Italy, was around 1000.00 per ticket (round trip)! – Horrific!!!</p>
<p>$199 in 1974 was equivalent to $750 in 2004
<a href=“http://www.newsengin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/083c35bcd0562e26862565af0057ad64/a77e7ca75e3b023485256e91004f5f22?SaveDocument[/url]”>http://www.newsengin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/083c35bcd0562e26862565af0057ad64/a77e7ca75e3b023485256e91004f5f22?SaveDocument</a></p>
<p>The funny thing is, Barrons: it sounds like all of us here agree in principle - that a capitalist economy with government regulation when and where needed is the best economic system devised by man so far - but we disagree on the fine points (like how much regulation and where.) Maybe if we could all remember how large the area of agreement is and try to avoid name calling over the much smaller areas of disagreement we could get that Kumbaya singalong going after all.</p>
<p>Re: Airline ticket costs. There’s an “apples to oranges” element here, you know. Airplanes are more efficient to operate now, so prices should come down. Except that fuel is more expensive. And then, deregulation bankrupted a lot of airlines, so the crew is paid less on the new airlines. And you have more seats closer to gether, less food, charges for more things, fewer routes available, etc. etc, etc. Bottom line: deregulation brought a lot of changes. Some good, some bad, some depend on where you sit. It’s a complicated world.</p>
<p>Leanid,</p>
<p>Perhaps I just missed your point; I was looking into the horizontal of it all–perhaps your gaze was vertically inclined at the time…not sure, really. If so: sorry, my apologies [pardon the redundancy].</p>
<p>Guilt is a heavy burden on the heart.</p>
<p>kluge, I hope I do not engage in name-calling here. </p>
<p>For fun I looked at flying from NY-London in October and found lots of choices in the $500-$600 RT range with about half of that being fees and taxes. That sounds OK to me. I’m sure there are some specials that will beat that from time to time.</p>
<p>I just saw this–very disturbing</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/fc/business/enron[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/fc/business/enron</a></p>
<p>in the infamous words of gomer pyle</p>
<p>suprise suprise suprise</p>
<p>this is the content of the link:
AP - 1 hour, 53 minutes ago
HOUSTON - The death of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay will likely cause his conviction to be erased from the record, experts said Thursday. The 64-year-old executive’s sudden death Wednesday from heart disease allows his lawyers to ask the court to vacate his conviction for fraud and conspiracy in Enron’s scandal that left thousands jobless and wiped out billions from investors.</p>
<p>Well, it certainly puts a spin on things doesn’t it</p>
<p>family will keep the money most likely as well</p>
<p>not saying anything suspicious here, but it tis interesting</p>
<p>I am flashing to that scene from Godfather 2, with Robert Duvall talkinga bout honor, and family, etc…</p>
<p>
Exactly the point. Thank you.</p>
<p>
Whatever I win tomorrow at the poker table, it should be enough to send you on a poem writing course.</p>
<p>cgm, before you get too excited, perhaps you should read the entire article. This will not affect the civil suits.</p>
<p>I was referring to the lawyers statements…</p>
<p>and a new little twist:</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5173228.stm[/url]”>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5173228.stm</a></p>
<p>Enron witness found dead in park</p>
<p>Police said the body was found on the ground by a walker
A body found in north-east London has been identified as that of a banker who was questioned by the FBI about the Enron fraud case.
Police said they were treating the death in Chingford of Neil Coulbeck, who worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland until 2004, as “unexplained”.</p>
<p>He had been interviewed by the FBI as a potential witness.</p>
<p>CGM: Thanks for sharing that. My brother-in-law was questioned as were several of his co-workers at a large power provider. I’ll be sure to pass on that a new addition to his obit should be “Enron witness”. (AND they lost big on Enron, maybe VICTIM OF KEN LAY should be included).</p>