Larry needs to make a budget

February 12, 2006 5:20 PM

"I'm worried, Larry. A financial planner counsels his client: "...I think it's imperative that we start to budget and plan. New purchases should be kept to a minimum. We need to establish and execute on a diversification game plan, to eliminate (yes, eliminate) all debt and build up a significant, conservatively structured, liquid investment portfolio...." Sound advice, but you wouldn't have thought this dickhead gentleman would need it.
posted by mojohand (18 comments total)

Links to a two week old news article? How would people who care NOT have seen this already?
posted by jonson at 5:26 PM on February 12, 2006

First I've seen it.
posted by hwestiii at 5:34 PM on February 12, 2006

I hadn't seen it. I was interested. We'll see if there're others. If you're really unhappy, complain in MeTa. Otherwise, grump to yourself, why don't you? And consider adding some roughage to your diet.
posted by mojohand at 5:37 PM on February 12, 2006

But financial experts agree that borrowing against stock holdings isn't generally accepted as a good way to operate.

"If you were to look in the textbook for how a financial plan should work, this would be in chapter one under, 'Never do this,' " said Cynthia Harrington, a former money manager who now writes about finance for journals and magazines.

A stupid platitude with which hundreds of thousands of successful investors would disagree.
posted by Kwantsar at 5:46 PM on February 12, 2006

What hwestii & mojohand said -- what's more, that would seem to be the point of a blog like MeFi. Not to merely regurgitate the increasingly small-seeming amount of news but to pick up the bits that are missed and keep them in context.
posted by abulafa at 5:49 PM on February 12, 2006

I don't understand why you crossed off dickhead. Seemed to work for me.
posted by fluffycreature at 5:51 PM on February 12, 2006

Hey, thanks for the reminder, I've been meaning to dump a bunch of ORCL sooner or later. Larry's my old boss (many levels of management removed), and hearing about his jackass antics always makes me wax nostalgic.
posted by gurple at 5:56 PM on February 12, 2006

kwantsar: how many of those investors are ceos whose principal worth is in their own company? I suspect that that is specifically the case their talking about in the article, not moms and dads borrowing to make a buck on wall street.
posted by shmegegge at 6:21 PM on February 12, 2006

I had forgotten all about Larry Ellison. Good to know he's got 1/10th of his net worth tied up in debt like the rest of us.
posted by wakko at 6:42 PM on February 12, 2006

Interesting read. Thanks for the link.
posted by furtive at 6:47 PM on February 12, 2006

I liked it. My brother works for Oracle. Larry's going down in flames, some day.
posted by fungible at 7:02 PM on February 12, 2006

Nah, Oracle bought that Peoplesoft CRM stuff, they'll be fine. We went to re-up our support contract for PPLSoft and found our cost had quadrupled. 20M for 4 years. Fuck you Larry.
posted by SirOmega at 7:43 PM on February 12, 2006

dugg
posted by matkline at 7:46 PM on February 12, 2006

I love Larry.
posted by soiled cowboy at 8:08 PM on February 12, 2006

I had forgotten all about Larry Ellison. Good to know he's got 1/10th of his net worth tied up in debt like the rest of us.

1/10?? I'm more like 15/10 (damn student loans, but thankfully the only debt I carry).

I assumed that the average American would carry a much more debt than 1/10 of their wealth, but maybe not since the average net worth of a U.S. household is approaching $400K. That's alot higher than I would have thought, but as the article points out, that's mean and not median. Anyone got any better stats to share?
posted by slm303 at 8:10 PM on February 12, 2006

From the article: Ebbers is serving 25 years in federal prison.

I just took a drink!
posted by dsword at 10:42 PM on February 12, 2006

It was all downhill after City on the Edge of Forever for Ellison.
posted by crunchland at 1:50 AM on February 13, 2006

No, I think his swansong was A Boy and His Dog.
posted by Dag Maggot at 2:12 AM on February 13, 2006