http://192.168.2.6/music/20061001/CNN Money and Markets.mp3

Today, the former CEO of WorldCom begins his 25-year sentences. Ebbers,as you were saying, was convicted last year in the Federal Court for his role in the 11 billion dollars accounting fraud that toppled the phone giant. But before that scandal, Ebbers was practically a commercial for Abbre/mo/mobility. The former milkman and high school basketball coach, Ebbers pieced together the WorldCom empire through a chain of complex acquisitions. At its peak in late 1990 WorldCom was the second largest long-distance company after ATNT. By all the accounts, however, Ebbers reports to prison virtually broke, he lost hundreds of millions of dollars when his WorldCom stock became / worthless and he had to liquidate almost all of his other assets to settle clients. Richard.

Err, doesn't sound good for Bernie then. (No)Gerri, Yeah, doesn’t, certainly, what about the company he left, the WorldCom, what’s / with that?

Richard, the accounting scandal exposed titanic hole in WorldCom’s balance sheet, so in 2002 the company was forced into bankruptcy along the way thousands of workers lost their jobs as well as savings that were tied up in the WorldCom stock. But the firm emerged from bankruptcy in 2004 under its original name MCI, then in 2005 they were bought by Verizon.

Elsewhere, a major homebuilder says it doesn’t know where the floor is. The Lennor, the Lennar Corp warned that the tumbling housing market has not hit bottom. This comes as the firm reported its third quarter earnings plunged by more than 33%. The company also said it was reducing its fourth quarter earning projections, and would miss Wall Street's Forecasts. That is the second time in the month, Lennar has warned that it would not meet fourth quarter estimates. Richard.

Well, a lot of people don't want to hear from Lennar at this moment. Any words, then, in terms of why they believe in it's gonna keep on sliding?

Well, we’re not saying anything explicitly, but like others in the industry, Lennar / notes the economy is strong and unemployment and interests rate are relatively low. Those factors traditionally translate into a strong housing market but there are more than 3 million unsold homes across the country, and that glide, oversupply is pushing prices down.

Finally the nation’s largest concert promoter and the biggest seller of concert tickets are reportedly not in harmony. According to the Los Angeles' Time, promotion's giant Live Nation says the concert business's been badly damaged by high ticket prices. That puts the firm at odds with Ticket Master which earn more that one billion dollars last year in fees from ticket sale and it's the unquestioned leader in that arena. Ticket Master has the exclusive right to sell tickets for Live Nation events until 2008.The company is trying to reach a compromise on fees which can add as much as 50% to the price of the ticket. The cost of the ticket, the most popular concerts last year average 57 dollars, but Richard, I got to tell you they go far higher than that.
Yeah, they do. ( Back to you.)
Yeah they certainly do, you know, it's typical, I guess, Ticket Master tries to defend... what is almost I won't say the quasi monopoly, if you will, I mean they're so strong.
Very close. Very close to a monopoly and obviously it's a subject can debate not just by the companies ,(Yeah)but also by the fans.