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• New York Times: Luring Customers From Medicare. By Milt Fruedenheim. Excerpts: For years, private insurers have offered alternatives to the federal Medicare program that are meant to give patients lower-cost options than the government coverage provides. More than 7 million people now subscribe to such plans, out of a total Medicare population of 42.5 million.
  But suddenly a type of private insurance plan is gaining ground that looks very similar to the basic coverage long available to anyone with a federally issued Medicare card.
  And the government is paying the private insurance industry a subsidy of 11 percent per patient, on average, to provide it. [...]
  The $7 billion that Medicare will pay private industry this year to provide this fee-for-service coverage is at least $770 million higher than the government would spend covering those patients itself, based on the 11 percent calculation. [...]
  It is a “back-door way of trying to privatize Medicare,” said Dr. Jack Lewin, the chief executive of the California Medical Association, a physicians’ group. But the Bush administration’s Medicare chief, Dr. Mark B. McClellan, insisted yesterday that the trend “is definitely not a ‘push to privatization,’ ’’ but simply a way to give people with Medicare more choices. “The original Medicare program is and remains an option for those who prefer it,’’ said Dr. McClellan, who plans to step down next month.
• Los Angeles Times: Sick but Insured? Think Again. Lawsuits accuse insurance companies of retroactively dumping families that rack up large bills. Firms defend their policies, but the state is investigating. By Lisa Girion. Excerpts: Dawn Foiles says an improper cancellation forced her and her husband to put their Riverside home up for sale. Steve Leyra says a cancellation — based on a condition he doesn't even have — cost him the chance to become a firefighter. George Nazaretyan and his wife are struggling to save their Van Nuys home and get care for their disabled twin daughters, even as their medical bills approach $1 million.
  The suits accuse health plans of dumping sick policyholders without evidence that the consumers intentionally omitted information about their medical condition or history. They also accuse insurers of using applications that are vague and confusing by design, trapping consumers into making mistakes that can be used to cancel their coverage later.
  The complaints involve individual policies — the type of coverage sold to people who work for themselves or for employers who don't offer health benefits. Unlike many work-based plans, which are open to qualified employees regardless of health, insurers in California and many other states can reject applicants for individual policies based on their conditions or health histories. After an applicant is accepted, a state law prohibits health plans from canceling unless the policyholder lied to obtain coverage.
  Aside from appealing to the company that dumped them, subscribers' only recourse is to complain to state regulators or sue. After an insurer yanks coverage, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to get a policy from another carrier.
• New York Times, courtesy of Congressman Bernie Sanders: Insurance Horror Stories. By Paul Krugman. Excerpts: "When Steve and Leslie Shaeffer's daughter, Selah, was diagnosed at age 4 with a potentially fatal tumor in her jaw, they figured their health insurance would cover the bulk of her treatment costs." But "shortly after Selah's medical bills hit $20,000, Blue Cross stopped covering them and eventually canceled her coverage retroactively."
  So begins a recent report in The Los Angeles Times titled ''Sick but Insured? Think Again,'' which offers a series of similar horror stories, and suggests that these stories represent a growing trend: more and more health insurers are finding ways to yank your insurance when you get sick.
  This trend helps explain something that has been puzzling me: why is the health insurance industry growing rapidly, even as it covers fewer Americans?
  Between 2000 and 2005, the number of Americans with private health insurance coverage fell by 1 percent. But over the same period, employment at health insurance companies rose a remarkable 32 percent. What are all those extra employees doing?
  Now we know at least part of the answer: they're working harder than ever at identifying people who really need medical care, and ensuring that they don't get it. In the past, they mainly concentrated on screening out applicants likely to get sick. Now, it seems, they're also devoting a lot of effort to finding pretexts for revoking insurance after they've already granted it. They typically do this by claiming that they weren't notified about some pre-existing condition, even if the insured wasn't aware of that condition when he or she bought the policy. Welcome to the ugly world of American health care economics. [...]
  Because everyone faces some risk of incurring huge medical costs, only the super rich can afford to be without health insurance. Yet private insurers try to refuse coverage to those most likely to need it, and deny payment whenever they can get away with it.
  The point isn't that they're evil or greedy (although you do wonder how the people who cut off the Schaeffers can look themselves in the mirror). The fact is that cruelty and injustice are the inevitable result of the current rules of the game. Blue Shield of California is a nonprofit insurance provider, yet as a spokesman put it, if his organization doesn't follow the for-profit practice of selectively covering only the healthiest people, ''we will end up with all the high-risk people.'' [...]
  Every other wealthy nation manages to provide almost all its citizens with guaranteed health insurance, while spending less on health care than we do. And there's no mystery why: we're paying the price for pointless, destructive reliance on private insurers. Medicare, which is a universal health insurance program for older Americans, spends less than 2 cents of every dollar on administrative costs, leaving 98 cents to pay for medical care. By contrast, private insurance companies spend only around 80 cents of each dollar in premiums on medical care; much of the remaining 20 cents is spent denying insurance to those who need it.
• Yahoo! message board post by "fhawontcutit". Excerpts: The commentary points out that these stories are about people with individual policies, not group policies. It also points out that "employment-based insurance is in rapid decline". Scenarios:
  • You get fired prior to FHA-eligibility and are unable to find a job with health benefits.
  • You get a job post-IBM with health benefits but can't keep that job until age 65.
  • Your FHA runs out -- you "think" you can get a "better deal" with an individual policy.
  • IBM discontinues its retiree healthcare program. (Possible?)
  • You actually succeed in getting individual coverage, but then you have a large claim.
  In all of the above scenarios, "getting a second job" does not help unless that job comes with health benefits under a group policy. You have a healthcare problem. The clock is ticking.
• New York Times Letters to the Editor: Our Unhealthy Health Care System (3 Letters). Excerpts: Paul Krugman has it right — a single-payer system is the only way out of our health care nightmare. Everyone knows that except the American public. The real question is: How has the right managed to convince Americans of so much that is demonstrably not true?
  Why do we believe in unregulated markets, when over and over again, from Enron to airlines to automakers to health care, the free market has failed to provide the products and services we really need? We will not fix our health care system, or anything else, until the American voter starts paying attention to reality.
• BusinessWeek: U.S. Health-Care System Gets a "D". A new report from the Commonwealth Fund points out shameful inconsistencies and inadequacies in the care given in the richest country. Excerpts: The U.S. health-care system is doing poorly by virtually every measure. That's the conclusion of a national report card on the U.S. health-care system, released Sept. 20. Although there are pockets of excellence, the report, commissioned by the non-profit and non-partisan Commonwealth Fund, gave the U.S. system low grades on outcomes, quality of care, access to care, and efficiency, compared to other industrialized nations or generally accepted standards of care. Bottom line: U.S. health care barely passes with an overall grade of 66 out of 100.
  Health care is also responsible for most new job creation, according to BusinessWeek's Sept. 25 cover story (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/25/06, "What's Really Propping Up The Economy"). Yet the U.S. ranks 15th out of 19 countries in terms of the number of deaths that could have been prevented. The study estimates that each year 115 out of 100,000 U.S. deaths could have been avoided with timely and appropriate medical attention. Only Ireland, Britain, and Portugal scored worse in this category, while France scored the best, with 75 preventable deaths per 100,000.
  The U.S. ranks at the bottom among industrialized countries for life expectancy both at birth and at age 60. It is also last on infant mortality, with 7 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 2.7 in the top three countries. There are dramatic gaps within the U.S. as well, according to the study. The average disability rate for all Americans is 25% worse than the rate for the best five states alone, as is the rate of children missing 11 or more days of school. [...]
  As a share of total health expenditures, insurance administrative costs in the U.S. were more than three times the rate in countries with integrated payment systems.
• Jim Hightower: A Secret Windfall for Drug Makers. Full excerpt: It looks like '06 is going to be a banner year for drug corporations! Profits at Merck, for example, have doubled, and Schering-Plough is up by a whopping 400 percent. This good fortune is the result of free-market innovations by top corporate executives, right. No – these skyrocketing profits come courtesy of the Bush government... and ultimately come right out of the pockets of us taxpayers.
  When George W pushed congress to pass his new prescription drug scheme, the drug giants smelled a chance to reap a financial windfall. Unleashing their army of lobbyists, they tucked a change into the law allowing them to jack-up the profits they make in a small, but lucrative market: medicines for poor people.
  About 6.5 million elderly or disabled poor people were getting their prescription drugs paid for by Medicaid. Drug companies were supplying these medicines under the "best price" rule, a sensible, taxpayer protection requiring pill makers to sell their products to Medicaid agencies at the lowest price offered to big insurance companies.
  Backed by the White House, however, drug company lobbyists persuaded our congress critters to "free" them from this best price rule – sticking you and me with the tab for the higher prices. How big is the tab? It's estimated that Glaxo, for example, will pocket an extra $298 million from us this year on just one of its drugs, and AstraZeneca will reap an extra $521 million from one of its medicines.
  We taxpayers are not even to be told the actual cost we'll pay under this "worst price" rule. While the drug corporations must report their prices to Medicare officials – the new law directs the officials to keep these prices secret from the media and the people.
  This is Jim Hightower saying... Next time you see a drug executive, tell him to give you a big ol' hug – because you're paying for his bloated corporate profits.
• San Diego Union-Tribune: Schwarzenegger vetoes universal health care bill. By Steve Lawrence. Excerpts: Saying he opposes government-run health care, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger followed through Friday on his promise to veto a Democratic bill that would have set up a universal health care system covering all Californians. “Socialized medicine is not the solution to our state's health care problems,” the Republican governor said in an unusually long veto message in which also he touted his efforts to expand two other government health care programs, Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, which serve the poor. [...]
  He said he wanted to see a “new paradigm that addresses affordability, shared responsibility and the promotion of healthy living. Single payer, government-run health care does none of this.”
  But the bill's author, Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, said Schwarzenegger mischaracterized the bill's effects. She said it would do what the governor said he wanted while saving health care consumers and doctors money. “Where there are no cost controls at all now, and enormous administrative overhead and profit for insurance companies, there would have been a transparent system that actually would succeed in making health care affordable in California,” she said in a statement. Kuehl suggested Schwarzenegger's real agenda was to “leave health care in the hands of private insurance companies and let working families lose coverage one family at a time.” [...]
  Supporters said it would save money by significantly reducing administrative costs, pointing to the 2 percent spent on administration by Medicare, the federal health care program for senior citizens, as an example. A program like the one proposed by Kuehl would save nearly $8 billion in the first year, according to an analysis by the independent Lewin Group commissioned by the bill's supporters.
• New York Times: Relief for Some but Maybe Not Many in Wal-Mart Plan for $4 Generic Drugs. By Michael Barbaro and Reed Abelson. At first glance, Wal-Mart’s plan to sharply cut the cost of generic drugs, to $4, seems like a signal event in American health care. It could make scores of treatments affordable to the uninsured, reduce the burden on Medicaid and bring competitive pricing to the pharmacy industry. Even company critics have praised the plan, conceding that it represents a case of the giant retailer using its size and ability to wring out costs to improve the lives of regular Americans.
  But a close examination of the program, with details confirmed by the company yesterday, suggests that its impact could be blunted by several factors.
  The plan, which is said to cover 300 drugs, includes only about 124 separate medicines in various dosages, like 12 versions of the popular antibiotic amoxicillin. It leaves out some popular drugs altogether, like the generic version of the cholesterol-lowering treatment Zocor. [...]
  Wal-Mart said it would not lose money on the low-cost generic drugs — and, in fact, several industry analysts predicted the company’s pharmacy business would benefit from the new plan. Unlike CVS or Walgreen, which rely on prescription sales for most of their revenues, Wal-Mart’s pharmacy business represents less than 10 percent of its total revenue and the company has identified it as an area that needs improvement. By luring customers of all incomes into the store at least once a month to fill generic drug prescriptions, Wal-Mart could increase overall pharmacy and store sales, these analysts said. [...]
  Health care analysts were quick to point out that Wal-Mart has carefully chosen which drugs it will cover — 300 out of roughly 11,000 generic drugs available. Moreover, it is not offering some expensive drugs, like any of the cholesterol-lowering statins, at the $4 price. And some of the drugs covered, like generic ibuprofen, cost very little and may be currently available for less than $4. “They are not losing money on all these products,” said Ms. Wilson, the health care consultant. [...]
  Still, critics say this plan does little to confront the high costs of health care for the uninsured, including Wal-Mart employees, since they still face the expense of going to a doctor to get a prescription, for example. While the plan is a good first step, “it is clearly as much a public relations effort as a substantive change,” said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA, a Washington consumer group that has often criticized Wal-Mart’s health care offerings.

• IBM Pension Lawsuit FAQ about Cooper v IBM (Updated 8/8/06)
• From the Job Cuts Status & Comments page
  • Comments 09/17/06: It's very sad to read how IBM is getting rid of employees. On the other hand IBM is hiring contractors from other countries (especially to the areas where jobs are been sent and will be sent in the near future). IBM is even processing their H-1B visas and green cards. -Anonymous-
  • Comments 09/18/06: I am so tired of IBM's corporate crap... one hand says here are redeployments(layoffs), the other hand wants to know what they can do to improve morale... I wasn't affected but I will not be an IBM employee much longer. I used to love working here now I can stand Mondays.... Take a stand and go work for a competitor those of you who are lucky enough RTP, AUS (pretty much anywhere but Rochester) -Anonymous-
  • I was outsourced to IBM back in mid-2003. Got dumped into band 6 after over 20 years, then was told I was too high in the band to get a raise. A bunch of us got our redeployment notices in Feb., 2005. I guess we were on the cutting-edge of HR euphemisms then. We got the same lines like I see today. "No time specified. There are no specific plans for layoffs. We'll help you find another position. Etc." Exactly 30 days later we got our 30 or 60 day layoff (uh, resource action) notices. Of course the only positions available internally require 100% travel or relocation without any moving assistance. I guess there’s a bit of a benefit to the employee to this process if you really want to stay with IBM since you’re not on the unhirable status until you get the real layoff notice.
    At least our outsourcing contract specified separation terms so I got the full 26 weeks pay. If you’re affected by this, don't forget to take advantage of any retraining money if that's still offered. I occasionally talk with the friends I made. Right now they have more project managers assigned to them than people doing productive work. -Outsourcee-
  • Comments 09/18/06: Offshoring is about to hit IBMC and ADI in Canada, according to the Employee Townhall Presentation we were invited to. We are told that most of our jobs will move to India and Brazil. The move will happen in 2 phases, the first in 4th quarter 2006 and the second in the first quarter of 2007. They did not talk about the wonderful skills of Indians and Brazilians. We were told that the layoffs will have nothing to do with performance, they are just trying to be competitive and save 20-30% on labour cost. There is no future for us. Globalization is destroying us. -still IBMer-
  • Comments 09/18/06: Outsourcee (09/18/06) is right. Our department has 4 productive employees, three project managers, two team leads, two administrative members (not admin's..think secretarial work), one team focal and a manager. For the last 6 months, all of our new hires have been in India. We are suffering not only due to the time difference but also from comprehension and communication when work is assigned to staff in India. Our managers push India, KL, and China every chance they get. We're hurting here in the states while we're ramping up staff in India.
    I'm hanging in there right now, searching and applying for new jobs. The motivation left a long time ago, which hurts when you still have determination to WANT to do a good and thorough job. But lately our favorite quote is from the movie Office Space: "My only real motivation is not to be hassled, that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired. -Anonymous-
  • Comments 09/19/06: Some people served with a Separation Agreement think they may return in the future to IBM as a contractor. How naive is that? There are other companies that will treat you better than IBM. You need to get off your butt and work for them. IBM uses a blacklist to prevent people from ever returning to IBM. So, if you are the most qualified person for the job per the head hunter, and you don't get back in IBM's door, even though you're the best. Guess what? You've been blacklisted! Don't waste your time on a loser company. Get a real job and live your life to the fullest. There is so much better than IBM. --Don't be Victimized--
  • Comments 09/20/06: Heard today from a reliable source that RTP Server div is cutting approx 150 jobs in 2 weeks time, maybe 750 US wide. Dust off your resumes. -Don't_get_fooled_again-
  • Comments 09/21/06: IBM Australia finance planning function is being shifted to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Over 30 IBMers in Sydney will be losing their jobs in the Cumberland office. This will happen in January 2007. -Malaysian IBMer-
  • Comments 09/21/06: I was actually glad when I reached 30 years service. At 30 years and 10 days I was resourced. I had been planning for that day for 15 years. Got the house paid off and pumped up the savings. I have another job and between the pension and my salary I am even with where I was with IBM. I do not look over my shoulder anymore, and we don't talk about layoffs over lunch. You see, when they know they got you, they can do anything they want to. I have a friend with 35 years in, and he sits and waits and becomes more pathetic each year. If you can go, then go. There is a world out there. -Anonymous-
  • Comments 09/21/06: I'm hearing that the Santa Teresa Lab is going to be shut down in several months. Anyone else hear that ? -Anonymous-
  • Comments 09/22/06: If you're resourced, "why in the hell" would you train people in India, Malaysia, Brazil, China, etc. to take over your job. IBM made it clear, when they resourced you, they didn't need you. Don't do the training. -Anonymous-
  • Comments 09/22/06: Union or no union, American workers everywhere are losing their jobs, but the union workers are getting better packages when they lose their jobs. These job losses are at the expense of HYPER-RICH PIGS not cheap labor! -POK-
  • Comments 09/23/06: Many at RTP have heard that in the first quarter of next year many jobs will be moving to Brazil. A final phase of a 2 year redeployment of work from the US to a foreign country. Of course IBM does not want this information to get out at year end, but many managers have given this information up because it means it’s over for them also. They are on the block along with the troops. -Anonymous-
  • Comments 09/23/06: Maybe a partial good sign, or just first hand proof that the turnover in India is higher than they anticipated? We've had 4 people quit in India on our team within the last 2 weeks. They're leaving IBM for other companies. Management is panicking, thinking it's safer now to hire in KL. In the mean time, everyone else on the team has extra burden now for the work that isn't getting done. Maybe the folks in India are opening their eyes to how bad IBM is treating them, or maybe they're smarter than some of us U.S. workers that are still putting up with the crap. In the end, what is sickening is our second line manager just got a huge promotion for giving us a "presence" in India. So that's where the cost savings is going..not to help the company, but to pad his pockets. -Anonymous-
• From the General Visitor's Comment page:
  • Comment 9/18/06: Who thinks Sam Palmisano needs to take a pay and bonus cut so that employees remain employed? Sam took home a 4 million dollar bonus last year. Yet, the company has layoffs on a regular basis. If employees need to be cut, then start with management. There are about 6-7 layers of management at this company. Talk about red tape! Fire management. It's TIME! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 9/18/06: Even though I always knew that going the extra mile is not rewarded, I just seemed to not get it. I gave up my work life balance by working 14 hours a day and weekends for 3 years even though I do not get paid overtime. Many times I worked right through vacation and holidays. I was told of rewards for my consistent extra contribution and accomplishments by my management that never came.
    As is common these days, rewards many times are given out based on favoritism versus contribution. I was brave and asked to discuss the situation with my management after many years of broken promises. I expected to at least be given an opportunity to present objective information. Silly me. My management already made up their mind I was wrong before they even talked to me and did not want to be confused by the facts.
    There are many disappointments, broken promises, but also good experiences. I implore you to hold on to the good experiences and do a good job for IBM while not giving up time with your family. Do not sacrifice the precious time you have with your love ones. I stopped all the self-imposed overtime and now spend this time with my family. It is my hope you do the same. Good luck in your journey back to a work life balance. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 9/19/06: After getting resourced and abused by IBM for years, things are becoming clear. I now understand my panic attacks, eye twitches, sweatingness, and shakyness that I experienced while at IBM. It was due to the abusive, corrupt, nasty, evil, self-serving managers I worked for. My first and second level managers loved to gang up and pick on me like bullies in a school yard. I wake up at night in a sweat with nightmares of IBM and pray to God that someday I will be able to put it all behind me. -Slowly recovering from IBM-
  • Comment 9/20/06: Big changes at the Boulder Plant. Most band level 6 and above except managers being knocked down. All the same tricks to get a person to separate themselves.
    Supplementals are the name of the game in Colorado. Management has their own little kingdoms where they rule and hand out the $$ to their friends, family members and lovers while the others do the work. If you see a person jogging in the morning with their I-POD and a grin, it's an IBM'er with connections who "works" from home.
    This company is cutting costs because it's too huge to react to changing business issues and too many are skimming off the top. At least there is a damn Wal-Mart on every corner. If you are still with this company, don't use EAP or HEP programs. I have heard it from the source, the info is going into your files and you can become a target in a second. Good night, Good Luck and Vote in November. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 9/21/06: Sam Palmisano = Marie Antoinette. Sam makes $75,000/WEEK. The peasants are restless. Anyone got a guillotine for Sammy and his court? -Anonymous-
  • Comment 9/21/06: I never did like Sammy from day one. I remember when he took the helm from Lou. I knew it was a bad choice. I remember watching Sammy on the video monitor in the hall around the time of the 9/11 attacks. He seemed like an arrogant ass. Sammy is a two faced arrogant slime ball. Until his ass is fired this company is going nowhere. I feel like the fellow on Office Space getting dinged for TPS report covers. I'm doing the bare minimum until Sammy's arrogant ass is fired. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 9/21/06: The reason that IBM dirty laundry and layoffs don't make the media is that IBM buys a significant amount of advertising. The media isn't going to bite the hand that feeds it. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 9/22/06: I'm a former IBMer that was let go a little over a year ago. I have since found a good job with a much smaller company. It's a good situation and I like it a lot, but there's still the same management B.S. The only way tech workers are going to be able to protect our jobs and our interests is to unionize. I know unionization has its downfalls, but if you're not in your manager's circle of favorites, your chances for opportunity are slim. You are going to get the leftovers. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 9/23/06: IBM doesn't care about people. When you work at IBM you work with people who work against you rather than with you. The company has changed tremendously and for the worst since Thomas Watson's time. This used to be a company of values, respect for the individual. Sam Palmisano has removed that core value from the set of IBM values.
    The number one value at IBM is money. Though this is not written in words; it is spoken in actions.
    Thomas Watson focused on creating IBMers and from that came the company--a company of value. Today, IBM is focused on money, not people of value. As Thomas Watson himself said---all the other companies hold money as a the number one value. Companies with THAT as a core value do not succeed. IBM will fail. Don't be part of the mass exodus from the company; Get out before you become associated with the mass exodus. -IBM's VALUES ARE NOT VALUABLE-
  • Comment 9/23/06: Don't you get the feeling while working at IBM that no one gives a damn about you? Do you really want to work someplace where your manager has a bad attitude and your coworkers are down right nasty. Your coworkers are such bitches and bastards because they are so consumed with looking out for their own jobs (with all the layoffs, outsourcing, etc) that there is no sense of a team. Your team mates are all too willing to speak poorly of you to make themselves or their buddies look good. So they can keep their jobs.
    The idea of a team at IBM is a joke. It's more like everyman for himself. Those that think they have an edge in with the boss are all too willing to bad mouth ya. Is HP hiring? What can be done to lure better companies into this one company town? Let's give IBM some competition in this community. -My Coworkers Think Cause They Work For IBM They Are Better Than Anyone Else-
• Pension Comments page
• IBM employees on employee raises
  • Comment 9/23/06: You know, if you are currently being paid way under the midpoint for your job classification and band and have had "2" or "2+" PBCs (and a lot of us are..or will be soon with no raises or even pay cuts through the evil practice of "rebanding"), IBM still seems universally bent to try to frustrate you into leaving..rather than trying to leave you alone so you might or will stay: save them money so they can continue to work you as a modern day indentured servant. They will probably not be offering you a package even if you want to or in the process of leaving.
    If they aren't paying you what you are truly worth now they NEVER WILL!!! Yeah, IBM must take "satisfaction" in stringing you along as a cheap, underpaid, unappreciated worker bee or work widget. How cheap and evil is this company????????!. RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL? Remember that, IBM? I guess this company has gotten an incurable case of selective amnesia now! -Anonymous-

• "Well, obviously" by "wonderaboutibm". Full excerpt: We all know that the IBM insiders are heavy net sellers. But you gotta give them credit -- they certainly know how to sow the seeds of confusion. Some questions that should be answered:
  1. What is the net overhang of unissued shares (options, restricted sales, outright gifts, etc.) to the executive management?
  2. What is the comprehensive list of stock award programs available to IBM executives and what are the general terms and conditions of these programs?
  3. How do stock-issue obligations of executive compensation schemes compare in volume to the stock-buyback provisions that sop up excess stock on the market?
  All of the above are reasonable and logical questions that are very difficult to answer precisely. I have tried researching these questions, but publicly available information from, say SEC Form 10-K filings, is spotty and poorly organized. Perhaps new SEC disclosure regulations will clarify the issue, but I am pretty sure that will strike many as a naive statement. The obvious conclusion from examining IBM 10-Ks is that the IBM mgmt is hiding a lot of worthwhile detail. I wonder why.
  Back in February/March we posted a thread about sales from the restricted stock program. It appears that virtually all IBM insiders are selling off as much of their stock as quickly as possible -- every last one of them sold about 40% of the stock that was issued to them that very day. If your statement about very low net purchases by the insiders is correct -- then I guess we all have to admit that anybody buying IBM stock right now is delusional.
  By the way, the stock is now in the low eighties. I am amazed, but then brownian motion zigs up as well as down. The secular trend is still down, with the next big bump down in mid-October after IBM posts less-than-stellar 3Q results.

• 8-Track Heaven
• The Bell System Memorial. Excerpt: This non-commercial website was originally founded and created by David Massey to help keep the memories of the Bell System alive and to pay tribute to those that made it the greatest telecommunications system on earth. This website also provides some technical and corporate historical information relating to Bell Labs, Western Electric, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), and the Regional Bell Operating Companies. There is also some limited technical information on Western Electric telephones for telephone collectors, hobbyists, students, and others for non-commercial use. I am not associated with any of the former Bell System companies (see disclaimer on the home page.)