Recently, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy spoke at Arizona State
University, and made some sobering comments about the economy.

Below is a second-hand summary [taken from an investment commentary I
subscribe to].

I would like to locate a verbatim transcript of McNealy’s talk.

~~~

"... A reader emailed me regarding some recent comments made by Scott
McNealy ... during a speech at Arizona State University, and here is
his summation: 'In a nutshell, he said that he does not understand how
the consumer keeps spending and spending, especially in light of
massive layoffs, and the fact that those who do find new jobs usually
take huge salary cuts. He then went on to say that we are sitting upon
a massive house of cards, and that he believes we will be in a
depression within two years.' "

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Request for Question Clarification by umiat-ga on 10 Nov 2002 20:04 PST

rnd13-ga,
  
  Are you sure it was an actual speech? There is a reference to Scott
McNealy's visit to Arizona State University's Center for Advancing
Business on 10/22/2002, which was primarily a day full of discussions.
There is no transcript of an actual speech. Could the e-mail you
received have come from some points McNeily gave during a discussion?
Refer to http://www.cob.asu.edu/seid/cabit/press_releases.cfm for a
description of the event.

umiat-ga

---

Clarification of Question by rnd13-ga on 13 Nov 2002 01:42 PST

Thanks for the various comments.  Interesting references.  As to the
request for clarification, the only information I have is in the quote
I originally cited.  It could very well be that it wasn't a "speech"
per se after all.
If anyone can come up with anything further, I'd be interested in
hearing it.  Otherwise, I'll just let the question expire on its own
...
Again, many thanks for your help!

Based on this news release,
http://www.cob.asu.edu/seid/cabit/press_releases.cfm, it sounds like
McNealy had a number of informal conversations at ASU. It is extremely
unlikely that anyone followed McNealy around all day, recording what
he said.

I believe the best you'll do is a synopsis, or potentially a talk with
someone who was at the discussions.

However, I wouldn't take that synopsis at face value. McNealy is
heavily quoted in the financial press, and if he ever used the word
"depression" in the context you mention, somebody would have leaked
it, and it would have been on at least Page 1C of The Wall Street
Journal the next day.

RND,

Once you find his recent comments, it might be interesting for you to
compare his not so sobering comments made in March 2000 at the
Stanford Business School.

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/services/news/audiovideo.html#vftt (search
for McNealy).

Claudietta

Perhaps not Scott McNealy but others wonder why the world economy
hasn't collapsed yet. Clearly debt is excessive. Lying, and cheating
abounds. Apparently the lies are holding it together and the low
interest rates. People with cash are unwilling to get 3% or less
return for comparative safety. In a really bad crash speculative
investments might retain 10% of principle while so called safe assets
like bank accounts are frozen for weeks, perhaps much longer. The fact
that it has not crashed yet may mean we have several more good years
of escalating lies.   Neil