Tim Francis-Wright of Bear Left writes in to say:
Dear Atrios,
Someone needs to put the kibosh to Bush's claims that he LOST money on his infamous Harken Energy transaction. First, there's how ho bought the shares in the first place, by exercising options
at below-market prices. Second, he claims that if he had held onto the stock for another 12 months, he would have sold at $8 per share. That's right. But only if his timing were as impeccable as it was when he sold in 1990 at $4 instead of at $2: from April 1992 through December 1996, the stock never hit $4 per share.
After a bubble in 1997 and 1998, Harken went stright into the metaphorical wastebin: the shares Bush sold at $4 are now worth less
than a nickel each.
Take a look at the historical HEC price (be forewarned: they had a 1-to-10 reverse split, so the Harken stock that Bush sold at $4 now shows on the chart as $40).
Sincerely,
Tim F-W
UPDATE: Ted Barlow, back from his travels, has more on this.
