>>>>>What book? I'd be interested in reading something from a VFP developer's perspective..
>>>>
>>>>His books can be expensive though..
>>>>
>>>>http://www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/sdg3.htm
>>>
>>>As an independent I have always looked at it like this -- if a technical book, even the relatively more expensive ones, saves me even an hour of wasted time, it's worth it. And that's saying nothing of good ideas that never would have come to me on my own. Just my 0.02. (That 2 cents' worth has been in stocks all these years, so now it's worth only 1 ;-) ).
>>
>>Inflation sucks, doesn't it?
>
>Yes, along with the stock market losing 44% of its value in the past year.

Just a thought... a lot of the helter-skelter could have been avoided if the stock were valued by their average price, at least when the value of a company (or a bank, specially a bank) was calculated.

Imagine that at IPO 1000 stocks were sold at $100 each. So the whole IPO accumulated $100,000 of investment. Now when the trading starts, 10 stocks (1% of the total) sells for $200 each. The total investment is still $100,000 - the company hasn't seen any extra dime, right? - but now the total worth is somehow $200,000. I'd propose this be worth $102,000, because that's how much real money was in it. And I'd ask that a special firing squad be designed for anyone who uses the imaginary $98,000 as the so-called "leverage" to emit $1,860,000 in loans. Give me such a lever, and I'll find someone willing to move their kidneys with it.