The Cutting Room: Numerous Voices, One Objective

"TheStreet.com" features a multiplicity of voices -- and it seemed every one of them could be heard on the show this weekend. By my count, we put nine people on air this go-round. And that was considering that there were two notable no-shows: Gary B. Smith (my "Chartman" partner) and James J. Cramer, a.k.a. "The Trader" (Jim who?).

We also managed to tackle a multiplicity of issues in our 30 minutes minus commercial breaks. These included, but were by no means limited to, safe havens for individual investors, the merits of money-market funds, a mutual fund in which the Great Unwashed pick the stocks, ways that investors can dodge the tax man and why the Capitalist Pig hereafter will be known instead as the Chauvinist Pig.

The viewer at home can't appreciate the way many of us on the show have become fast friends from our daily interactions leading up to each week's half-hour of intensity. I only get to see these folks now and again in New York, but I chit-chat with producer Gary Schreier and his sidekick Alison Moore throughout the week. The fun for a "remote" contributor like me begins when the New York folks start talking in my ear a few minutes before airtime. Remote coordinator Michelle Pound cheerfully checks me in. Then the calming Billy Toth, director of technical operations, makes sure I'm up to speed on what's coming next.

This week, the pre-show banter focused on our many guests in the New York control room, including Herb Greenberg's daughter, Tracy Byrnes' husband and various family members of Phil Dow, our guest from Dain Rauscher Wessels. TheStreet.com still is small enough that we have a family feel about us, and it sure is fun for friends and relatives to visit while we tape.

Word on TheStreet asked the provocative question: If Procter & Gamble (PG) can get creamed like a dot-com (Quoth Brenda Buttner: "Are we just not washing enough?"), is there any safe haven in this stock market? Greenberg jokingly offered an unpalatable suggestion: money-market funds. The short version of our conclusion as far as I heard it is that, no, there is no safe haven. One must invest in the stocks that make up the U.S. economy, even when the only sector that works for traders -- not investors -- is technology.

Michael Witz presented a free advertisement for the Community Intelligence fund at StockJungle.com. This outfit actually takes its cues from individuals out there and has had a solid short-term return. But the people who are offering their picks aren't necessarily buying into the fund, nor are they required to. The fund has attracted assets so far of only $1 million.

TSC tax maven Byrnes supplied what easily was the most informative element of this week's show by listing for viewers concrete ways to turn their investing expenses into tax deductions. This was clever stuff. She explained that so long as one's investment costs exceed 2% of adjusted gross income, items like newspaper subscriptions, accounting and legal costs and even travel to one's broker's office can be deducted. That'll make viewers some money.

A review of past predictions showed that Greenberg knew more about biotech stocks than shares of Lucent (LU) and that I had a better handle on the Palm (PALM) initial public offering than I did on when Microsoft (MSFT) will settle its antitrust case with the Justice Department.

But the most revealing comment in our show's final segment showed that fund manager Jonathan Hoenig has the wrong word in his title, the Capitalist Pig. Dissing shares of handheld computer maker Palm, Hoenig said, I think, "An IPO is like a woman -- the less you know about them the better."

Hmm, Jonathan, we financial writers probably don't have the analytical skills required to properly figure that one out. But aside from his misogyny -- ably laughed off by Buttner, a woman about whom fans of her mutual fund column always want to know more -- Hoenig seems to be implying that shares of Palm, at 70, are way overvalued. We'll judge the Pig on that prediction down the road, not on his social commentary.

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