For these five stocks, the punishment didn't fit the crime

I have to concur with this opinion. Many years ago a stock broker told me that "when the cops raid the place, they take the nice girls and the bad girls in the paddy wagon." I believe there is a certain amount of "hot" money in conservative investments such as utilities. When panic spreads, people sell even utilities. Many peo[ple tend to be irrational in both up and down markets.

The mullahs at Exxon-Mugger didn't meet their number because the price of natural gas was too low? I guess that means they're going to pass the savings on to us the consumer. Well, not quite. More than likely they beat earnings expectations but were afraid to admit considering that the oil monopoly is helping to push us into recession. How about taking some of that hard earned cash (ha ha) and build some refineries. No, bad idea? Why? Oh, right, the price of gas would tumble. Standard Oil never had it so good.
At approx. $40 billion a year Exxon could give the US free gas for something like 30 days and still break even. Gas at approx. $3.00/gallon. Consumption at 346 millions of gallons/day. I wonder if executives from Exxon were in that meeting Cheney had at the start of the first term that he has fought so assiduiously to keep private? Just askin'.

Beltway Greg
"Gettin' down and dirty so you don't have to."

Hello, I watched and read all the garbage about Bernard Ebbers via the paper, internet, TV, etc...
Well, I lost 1/4 million + 1000 shares of stock. That amounted to my entire retirement. Did I get any money back? Not a penny! Am I angry? No! Wouldn't do any good. The attorneys got the majority of the dollars. That was a no-brainer.
The way I looked at it was like this. I have known BJE for almost 20 years. He had been in many business ventures and had more than one opportunity to steal from them and set up fake profits, when the companies were smaller, without getting busted. Being a private company, he had much more control of what went on because he didn't have Board of Directors, stock holders, and the entire world looking over his shoulders. Why would he wait until everyone was watching him? Didn't make much sense to me.
What happened, in my opinion, was Scott Sullivan wanted to look good to Bernie so he invented stuff. It was easy to say, "I did what Bernie said to do". That's called CYA. If no one found out about his scams, well, he would have looked wonderful to Bernie and the rest of the outside world. But he got busted and pit the blame elsewhere, aka "scapegoating". He didn't want a long term prison stay and a new boyfriend. So, he planned and plotted, testified for the government and got a MUCH less sentence than BJE. He will pay for his (mis)deed. Upstairs!! I doubt he will make it upstairs.
I write to BJE and he told me "AS GOD AS MY WITNESS I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON OR I WOULD HAVE PUT A STOP TO IT LONG AGO! I believe him. He was the perfect one to go down. Lots of jealousy for the cowboy, boots, jeans, jackets, etc... Also, nothing going on in the news and what a way to get the papers sold, internet hits, news watched and opinions spoken. And talk about a ridiculous sentence...he could have killed someone and got less of a jail time. Sad thing went down. Three people know the truth about what went on. Bernie, Sullivan, and Jesus! Why should he have to spent the rest of his life in prison? He did a lot of people a lot of good!!! But, that was last weeks work...a cancelled check.
I BELIEVE BERNARD J. EBBERS WITH MY WHOLE HEART.
Thanks for listening.
Linda Governick
St Louis MO

My only wish is that Exxon would take the kid gloves off and show America (the wastefull) just whose oil it is their selling.
You bunch of wastefull spoiled brats. As all your arses get fatter and fatter you continue to move away from your jobs and the city thinking oil will always be there. Well let me tell you something, as a educated geologist, oil is not easy to find.
A smart man with a couple of million and a drill rig would sell the drill rig and go play golf after putting his money into a guaranteed investment. I personally look forward to the day, maybe soon, when a gallon of gas cost $10.00

I agree the punishment doesn't fit the crime. The punishment is way to lenient. Example:AT&T which has reassembled itself and has all but has a monopoly of the phone business. Give them a few years and they'll own it all. All the companies listed should be broken up.