Ballmer says economy suffering from reset not recession

Well Microsoft may be sitting on a huge pile of cash, but it's only a little bigger than half of what it was 4 years ago, and shrinking rapidly. Really. Have a look at the Microsoft balance sheet for the truth.

SIgned - A Guy Who Did His Homework

There is a reason why he is known as BULLmer in the industry. You can B.S. some of the people, some of the time, but you can't B.S. all the people all of the time - though BULLmer tries.

The only thing needing a reset (button) are LG phones now they are going to be running Windoze, to save you removing the battery every five minutes becaused its crashed...

Well, Ballmer might be on to something. The US is in a recession, but recession only means negative GDP for some finite time. I think this is more a permanent phenomena rather than just several quarters of negative GDP. It is basically the end of US consumerism, and people will now save more and spend less, and economic growth will be zero plus or minus 1 percent for at least a decade. No more 'bling' or frivolous toys for people who cannot actually afford it, ie cash.

Microsoft's smaller cash pile couldn't possibly be because of the one-time $32.6 billion dividend payment they made in late 2005, nor the billions they are spending on stock buy-backs every year (another $40B from '08 to 2013).

I second HPC4651 comments.

In addition, I like to point out that there is nobody left in the world who would trust the US monetarism. The worldwide money economy is being reorganised, and that is probably Ballmer's reset button and the cause of the "financial crisis".

Anybody who believes that the US Dollar will remain the international currency which it was should do a reality check. Most products from Europe are being traded in Euro, not US Dollar. Germany for example, World Export Nation #1 (China is #2), sells 85% of services and goods in Euro, with most of the remaining 15% in US Dollar coming from Airbus. Airbus will find the right moment to make the long awaited switch to the Euro.

I am sure the US Dollar is going to take a nosedive this year. It happened over the past years, at a loss rate of 7.5% per year vs. the Euro. 7.5% - think about it! Only the pressure on the Euro due to sales of stocks in Europe by US investors has concealed this development.
And then there is all that money which somehow disappeared in Iraq and elsewhere. We are probably seeing only the tip of the iceberg so far, but hundreds of billions of dollars have produced absolutely no results. For how long are countries like China, India and the OPEC going to support this development?

Perhaps Europe's economy model of a sustainable growth is better for the world's future than the rush from bubble to bubble. I agree with Ballmer, the reset button has already been pressed, and a few off switches need to be pressed as well (like tax deduction for SUVs).

M$ stock is just another in the long row of Toxic Dollar Denominated Assets.

The CEO of the former downplaying it all this is more proof then anyone needs to have.

The USA is living on a big-foot way to big-foot for a long time.
This bubble is bursting....Obama will be able to save it a bit...but not enough.
They have too wake up overthere, and faster then they think.
You can't let people suffer and try to make money, it simply doesn't work.
Our socialist Europe isn't great, but we don't let people starve!
The USA let their own people die on the streets...shame on you!
Think about others, don't be so selfish, that is your problem.

The USA is living on a big-foot way to big-foot for a long time.
This bubble is bursting....Obama will be able to save it a bit...but not enough.
They have too wake up overthere, and faster then they think.
You can't let people suffer and try to make money, it simply doesn't work.
Our socialist Europe isn't great, but we don't let people starve!
The USA let their own people die on the streets...shame on you!
Think about others, don't be so selfish, that is your problem.

I had to laugh at the last posts who said Obama can save it for a while. The truth is the marxist Oboma and his marxist commrads in the house and senat want this to happen. Itwill allow their plan of socialism/marxism to come true unless we in the USA wake up and kick their rears out of washington. Look at Hugo Shavez and you will know what the marxist, I mean democrat party in the uSA wants.

Paranoia is a serious mental problem. Can I suggest going to see someone about it before you do something foolish

First, lol at Robin. Second, Bas, America doesn't let it's own people die in the streets. America is about oppurtunity, which isn't available anywhere else the way it is here. Those people who allegedly 'die on the streets' (which doesn't actaully happen...) have a much better chance than anyone else in any other country to make something of themselves. The education and market is available to them. It's their fault for not taking it. So, while it may sound evil, if they are dying in the streets (and they're not...), it's their fault.

I guess LG has a sweet deal. Sad about the phones, though.

They will learn, but not soon enough.

Let's face it, this economic crisis is the perfect storm for Microsoft :
Companies have cut their IT Budgets but many were going to skip Windows Vista anyway. When the economic crisis will be over Windows 7 will be good and ready.

Reset as in fascism is just getting into gear. How can a die hard fascist not be excited over the massive capital transfer of the current decade? What a bunch of yellow livered cowards.

Be real, be sober.

While we are all talking about recession and recover, people do not realize that we are on our way to reach a new point where we have to start everything from there. It IS a reset and won't finish until next year..

I think the barriers Mightsoft want to break down are not those between "people, information and applications" but rather the ones between the punters wallet and its own bank account. And judging by how easy that has been in the past, i'm sure they will do just fine in the future to.

As reset is the way to save Windows I suppose he likes to belive a reset reset is all that is needed to save the ecconomy.
Enjoy your self, Ballmer, in a couple of years your oppinion will be as uninteresting as the oppinions of kid Bush

a very rich person who either

1. Hasn't noticed his ass is on fire
2. Is ignoring the fact is ass is on fire
3. Knows his ass is on fire but thinks that by saying there is no fire the fire will go out.

Your new logo and company - A frog, incisive media? Um what is the connection. Frogs have no teeth, they are squishy, small and when people who kiss them have to hope they turn into a prince.

This recession could give us very cheap "netbook-mobilephone-shopping" combo tech.

Chuck in some decent screens for reading magazines, TV, gps, and some bright ideas and we could see a new tech leading the way out of the economic doldrums.

To cheer us all up we should see a large crucifiction of the top bankers, including Alan Greenspan.

The very seriously rich are making a fortune out of this recession, like they did in the last one. I just got to get up there with them ;-)