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I spoke with the author on the radio! Please read why I'm not buying this!
On page 160 of this book, Richard Miniter wrote:
"Consider Halliburton's stock price. When current CEO David J. Lesar took over from Dick Cheney in August 2000, the company's shares were trading at $54. They sank to a record low of $8.70 in 2001. As of August 9th, 2005, they trade at $58. If Halliburton had been raking in record profits in the war years (from 2003 to the present), it's stock price would have climbed, not flatlined."
I personally heard Mr. Miniter say this in so many words when he was being interviewed on the Michael Medved show shortly after this book was published. I looked at a graph of Halliburton's stock price and noticed that it had gone nothing but up since the U.S. invaded Iraq. (And it's gone up since then!)
I called into the Michael Medved show and was actually put on the air with Richard Miniter. I asked him, in so many words, how he could say what he had just said in light of the fact that as of March 2003 Halliburton's stock had gone nothing but up. I told him that I was looking at Halliburton's stock graph on Yahoo while we were talking on the radio.
To my astonishment, Mr. Miniter just repeated, in so many words, the quote above from his book. Just when I was ready to "lower the boom" on him, I was cut off.
The fact of the matter is that if you look at Halliburton's stock graph since March of 2003 (go ahead, open another window and do it!) you'll see that since this Iraq war started almost exactly three years ago, Halliburton has been a phenominal investment. Judging just by their stock graph, it looks like the Iraq war is treating Halliburton quite well indeed. I wish I had bought some of their stock back then!
Apparently Mr. Miniter doesn't look at stock graphs before he writes about a company's stock action, or he's banking on you not doing so.
The very fact that Mr. Miniter explicitely mentions the "war years" of "2003 to the present" and says "it's stock price would have climbed" is one of the great pieces of disinformation I've ever read in any book in my life, and in a book entitled "Disinformation".
If Mr. Miniter's writings on Halliburton can be debunked just by calling up a stock graph on Yahoo, then what about the other "myths" that he's written about that aren't so easy to get first hand information about? Personally, I'd rather just find another book.
It looks to me like Mr. Miniter is pulling a "Michael Moore" on conservatives. He wrote a book telling them what they want to hear, just like Moore shot a film telling liberals what they wanted to hear.
Shame on you conservatives for just eating this up! Don't you remember that Ronald Reagan said, "Trust, but verify"? The people who tell you what you want to hear are the ones who can deceive you the most easily. They are counting on you not verifying their facts. I learned that years ago and I wish more people out there would figure that out.
Those of you out there waiting for Halliburton to go bankrupt had better not be holding their breath.
March 2006 · Books