Martha Stewart

[christina]

Well, I can't deny my urges any longer...
I have wanted to post this issue for several days now but have been unsure...
So, here goes...do you think Martha Stewart is guilty of insider trading?
I am neutral on her, as a personality. Apparently, people love her or hate her...not me.
I watch her cook on tv, and bought her cookbook as a gift recently. I like the Living magazines.
I respect her talent...
It's hard for me to believe that she would be so stupid to sacrifice her empire for a small amount of money.
She sold stock totalling about $250,000 but has lost several million in stock value since this allegation of misconduct.
She was a savvy stockbroker for over 20 years.
Is she being picked on because she's a woman?
Do millionaires insider tradeeveryday but good ol boy networking never permits the leaks that happened here?
Is the media to blame for continuous and on-going coverage of this event?
Does the media hate the rich? Women? Or just Martha because she's finally done something wrong?
I don't know...of course, in the whole scheme of things, a millionaire's financial loss is not my biggest concern today. I've often noticed a sentiment expressed on this board that I dislike...hating the rich because they are rich.
I fight my own reverse snobbery tendencies.
As her company's stock has dropped significantly, shareholders, and regular people who buy stock for their retirement suffer if they are invested in the market (Not me...I own NO stock)
Okay...enough from me...she's being covered on the news now so I'll listen...

[CanOBeans]

I think it's a little early to convict her. But a lot of people already have based on the flimsy info that's out there right now. Innocent until proven guilty, right, even for the rich and annoyingly well organized, so until there's evidence of her guilt, she's innocent in my book. I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to sell all your stock in something knowing that the next day there was going to be an announcement that would send the stock plunging, especially for such a small amount compared to the rest of her wealth. I don't think Martha's that stupid, but who knows.

I think there's a lot more evidence for indicting Bush than ol' Martha, but his popularity ratings and his connections are better than hers so I'm not holding my breath there.

[kama'aina mama]

I haven't followed this closely enough to say whether I think she is guilty or just a victim of a fluky coincidence. The one guy, chief financial officer (maybe?) of the company and his daughters are clearly quite guilty if the info I have heard is correct. Has anyone made a connection, ie communication between one of those three and La Martha? Or did she just unload her stock at the right time so it looks bad?

Either way, insider trading is a HUGE crime and should be prosecuted VERY agressively and punished harshly. These people in positions of power intentionally screw the little guy, including their own employees, so they can 'take the money and run'. It sucks hard! Also, if scandals like this continue the world market will lose confidence in the US stock market and put thier money elsewhere. No matter how you may feel about the role of corporations in modern life you have to understand the devestating effect that a shift like that would have on the economy in the US. Something like that stands a greater chance of ruining many lives than any single terrorist strike.

And here's another thing. Maybe my mom was a Pollyanna, but I remember her telling me that the reason so many millionaires went bust after the stock market crashed in the 20's was that they had seen the signs of the recession coming on and tried desperately to prop up the stock market by pouring a lot of their personal wealth in to their own stock. They lost all their money because they tried to save the little guys from what would happen (and did) when there was a crash. I don't see anyone doing anything like that these days.

[ladylee]

She's the new millennium's Queen of Mean (remember Leona Helmsley?) I know many people who work for her org, as well as people who know her daughter. No one has nice things to say about her as a human being. My husband got an offer from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia last year and turned it down-in large part because of my warnings, lol...

As far as the insider-trading thing goes, well-I'm not sure. She strikes me as being too shrewd to do something like that. If she did, didn't people learn their lessons in the 80's?