www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 By: Oscar Heck

VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: Over the last 15 months or so ... more particularly in the last 4 months ... Venezuela has received a very negative press. Much of the negative press was propagated by the four privately-owned Venezuelan television stations (clearly anti-Chavez and pro-opposition) and by many newspapers, including several USA-based newspapers ... much in the form of editorials and commentaries, making it easier and more “acceptable” to propagate lies and manipulate news events.

I spent 3 months in Venezuela between mid-December 2002 and mid-March 2003, traveling throughout approximately half the country. The reason: I had been following the news about Venezuela from outside Venezuela, and realized that there was something odd with the way the news reports seemed to be more and more biased (anti-Chavez) from the time that the reformatory-type laws were being "approved" at the end of 2001. (I put “approved” in quotations because I have been getting very conflicting information as to how these laws ­ Ley Habilitante ­ came into existence).

The point I would like to make in this article is that Venezuela is as beautiful as ever, and as safe as it has always been. Venezuelans are who they have always been; a joyful, proud, hard-working and honorable people.

I traveled the country through what the opposition falsely labeled as a “national strike.” No problems ... only one bus delay from Caracas to Puerto La Cruz, because the bus could not leave during the time that opposition supporters blocked the highways. (For people who took taxis, many taxis doubled their fares during the time that there were fuel shortages).

No matter where I was, I found beer (although at up to triple the regular price) and cigarettes ... food was plentiful, although there were shortages of certain products for a while.

I met travelers from the Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Canada, USA, Japan, England, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Holland. What people outside Venezuela were seeing and hearing about the situation in Venezuela was mostly focused around some of the major events happening in certain parts of Caracas (Prados Del Este, Chuao, Chacao, Altamira, etc.) and other major cities such as Maracaibo and Barquisimeto.

For the vast majority of Venezuelans, it was business as usual ... but with the inconveniences caused by pro-opposition people blocking of streets and highways, big marches on a weekly basis on weekdays, anti-Chavez alarmist propaganda on television instead of regular programming, scarcity of beer since the opposition shut down the beer manufacturers, scarcity at times of Harina PAN (the Venezuelan staple) for making bread. since the opposition also shut down the flour manufacturers, and of course, the gasoline lines … since the opposition also tried to shut down the petroleum industry.

Today, things are almost back to normal. Prices have also come back to near normal levels. (There had been a lot of hoarding going on during the stoppage.) There are almost no more gasoline queues.

The tourist industry was affected quite negatively … principally caused by the without-conscience spreading of lies from the opposition-backed media in Venezuela and abroad (See anti-Chavez Miami-based organizations) … scaring tourists away from Venezuela.

Damage has been done but it is not beyond repair. Venezuela still has:

• the highest waterfalls in the world, Angel Falls near Canaima

• the longest cable car in the world (about 11-12 km.), at Merida (The Andes)

• jungles, the Amazonas

• deserts, at Coro

• Caribbean island resorts, at Margarita, Los Roques and more

• astrological observatories that one can visit, near Merida

• Parque Del Este, in Caracas, where you can see 30ft. boas

• Los Llanos, (The Plains), where you can see boas and huge caimans and birds

You can easily travel throughout Venezuela ... the bus system is very good.

If you do not like to travel by bus, you can take a plane to almost any part of Venezuela and rates are affordable. The bus will cost you about US$20 for a 12-hour ride, and the plane about US$100 for the same trip ... about 1 hour.

Small hotels can be found in almost every town and village at very good rates, about $4-7 per night ... of course you can also rent at resorts for substantially more. You can eat a full meal for $2-4 in small local restaurants. Tours to the jungles, or to the central plains can cost you about $150-200 for a 4-day adventure from Merida depending on the number of people. A beer now costs about 32 cents, cigarettes about 90 cents a pack.

One needs not to worry about kidnappings. People who are kidnapped are generally well-known rich Venezuelans. About theft ... in the last three years I have been robbed only once … but I was where I shouldn’t have been ... on a deserted beach at least 2 kilometers away from the nearest village.

There are some precautions to take, as one would take traveling to any foreign country.

If you take taxis, take legitimate taxis (in Venezuela, white with yellow lines on side). Do not go out at night unless you are very familiar with the area, or are accompanied by people who are. Do not go to places where you will be isolated, unless you are in a large group. Make sure you always have about $30-40 equivalent in your pocket in the event that you do get robbed. Thieves, even armed ones, want money (cash) … so do not try to fight them.

Some hints: Once you arrive at a location, make friends with local people: taxi drivers, corner store owners, barbers, magazine stand owners, local “home” restaurant operators, etc. They're usually the ones that will advise you best on where to go and not to go ... what to do and what not to do. Treat them well and they'll treat you well.

There is so much to see and do in Venezuela.

It is my favorite country and hope that readers out there will consider visiting.

Enjoy!

Many will say that Venezuela is paradise on earth ... I believe it to be!

Viva Venezuela!

Oscar Heck oscarheck111@hotmail.com

www.financialexpress.com Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, March 18: The war fears may be dampening for the trade and industry in general, but shipping has been an exception with the upward movement in freight rates. The tanker and dry bulk segments have seen a spurt in the average daily earnings since the last weeks of January this year.

According to Clarksons, Suezmax tankers quoting a rate of $48,473 per day on January 24, 2003 has gone up to $56,891 per day, while an Aframax tanker has jumped from $36,612 per day to $62,633 per day. Freight rates for clean products has moved from $22,632 to $29,589 for the same period.

Besides the possibility of a US attack on Iraq, a GE Shipping spokesperson attributed it to the recent harsh winter resulting in depletion of petroleum reserves. This, coupled with the race to build an oil inventory across all countries with a stagnant tonnage, resulted in an increase in freight rates, he added.

Further, crude production in Venezuela rose following the 2-month strike being called off in that country. However, the crude production in Venezuela is yet to reflect on the freight rates as the production is yet to reach the necessary scale, he added.

However, according to an Essar Shipping spokesperson, it is difficult to predict whether the current freight rates would be able to hold on as the future looks uncertain. Essar Shipping, however, stands to gain as it has five of its six Suezmax on ‘spot’ basis, while one tanker has been on time charter for a period of six months. GE Shipping, on the other hand, has entered into fresh agreements for time charter in February 2003 with agreement expiring at various periods during the year.

Dry bulk rates too have increased in tandem with tanker rates. In the Capesize segment rates have firmed up from $19,042 per day to $22,533 per day on February 28, 2003, while rates for Handymax went up from $9,625 per day to $10,125 per day for the same period. However, freight rates for Panamax vessels came down from $12,428 per day to 11,378 per day. The improvement in the freight rates in the dry bulk segment has been attributed to steel movement in China. Moreover, the upswing of construction activity in China too has added to the increase in freight rates, an Essar Shipping spokesperson said.

www.counterpunch.org March 17, 2003 By WAYNE MADSEN

The last time an American President flew to the Azores for a summit was 1971 when Richard Nixon met French President Georges Pompidou for a discussion of international monetary problems. The two leaders also met with Portuguese Prime Minister Marcello Caetano. In 1971, Pompidou, who had succeeded the independent and nationalistic Charles de Gaulle, began to mend fences with the United States. Nixon became a master of international diplomacy, charting out policies that would open the door to China and begin a process of détente with the Soviet Union. It was an era of Cold War statesmanship and a widespread big power desire to settle conflicts at peace tables and not on battlefields.

Fast forward to today. President Bush, who has severely damaged, perhaps irreparably, over 60 years of American diplomatic statecraft, has gone to the Azores for a summit with his "coalition of the willing," which now consists of a politically-damaged and Donald Rumsfeld-savaged Tony Blair, Spain's increasingly unpopular Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar (who First Bro Jeb Bush thinks is President of a Spanish Republic), and Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, who assured the world that there would be no war declaration against Iraq at the summit.

The Azores Summit is one of the most pathetic attempts throughout recent world history to convince international public opinion that some sort of grand coalition exists with a consensus that it is necessary to invade and occupy another country. The summit on the volcanic protrusions in the mid-Atlantic is nothing more than a Madison Avenue-style advertising campaign. Look at the ingredients on the product label known as the "summit" and one will find that it consists of bogus intelligence reports linking Iraq to uranium from Niger (Israel's Likud regime, to no one's surprise, looks like the source of these fabrications), plagiarized academic dissertations, a phony road map to peace in the Middle East, and a 1998 letter to President Clinton from a cabal of neo-conservative GOP courtesans that demanded an immediate attack on Iraq. For those who are not up on the French language during a time when French Fries are Freedom Fries, "courtesan" is defined by Webster's Dictionary as "a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele." An apt description for the likes of Elliot Abrams, John Bolton, Paula Dobriansky, Zalmay Khalilzad, Peter Rodman, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Zoellick and others who signed the 1998 letter and who now call the shots on the war on Iraq.

The Bush administration may think it enjoys widespread domestic support. But they same cannot be said for Bush's beleaguered British and Spanish colleagues. Blair now faces a growing revolt from his own party that has spread from the House of Commons in London to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff. Labor Party officials are having trouble staving off anti-war resolutions in all three parliaments. An anti-war resolution in the Scottish Parliament failed by only a few votes and only after the Tories came to the assistance of the Labor majority. It was a replay of what occurred earlier in the House of Commons. Ten British Asian Labor members of Parliament said they will quit if Britain attacks Iraq without Security Council resolution. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is facing a revolt from anti-war Labor Party members in his own Blackburn constituency.

Aznar, a former tax collector, faces an electorate that is overwhelmingly against a war with Iraq (75 per cent by some polls). He faces municipal elections in May in which his conservative coalition (which draws its inspiration from Francisco Franco's old Fascist movement) faces a trouncing by opposition parties.

Further alienating these leaders from their public is the fact they chose to fly to the Azores for a war summit only hours after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington, London, Madrid, and Lisbon. Of course, Bush always leaves town during anti-war protests. He thinks they are merely focus groups. But for Blair, Aznar, and Barroso such arrogance in the face of overwhelming public opinion will spell political disaster. There is already talk that Blair and Aznar might be offered high-paying jobs on the international advisory board of The Carlyle Group in return for their political prostitution. They could then join former President Bush and former Prime Minister John Major among the world's elite multimillionaires who work behind the scenes to identify and wreak financial and political havoc with retaliatory targets of opportunity like Iran, North Korea, Libya, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, France, Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Vatican City, Norway, Ireland, Guinea, Cameroon, Angola, and Belgium. All these countries have been subjected to varying degrees of vitriol by President Bush and his cowboy courtesans.

But it is President Bush who may face the ultimate shock from his own ignorance and arrogance. The GOP and their cohorts in the media constantly portray anti-war demonstrators as a bunch of leftwing Marxists and radicals. At the March 15 protest in Washington there were some important firsts. At least one off-duty Washington policeman joined in the march with a sign saying "This DC Cop Against War on Iraq." Veterans sporting their Veterans of Foreign Wars hats were seen for the first time. And sporting business suits, a group of lawyers held up a banner in front of the Justice Department emblazoned with "Attorneys Against the War." Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey responded to one protestor's call to arrest the criminal in the White House with both a chuckle and a reply that "it's not my jurisdiction."

This reporter does not want to falsely raise expectations that these terrible times are improving but it is clear that something is changing -- and it is changing for the better. Seventy former members of Congress signed a letter opposing the war (including four Republicans). One can only hope that the sitting members of Congress would worry more about opposing the war and representing their constituents than in stripping the word "French" off of fried potatoes and toast.

The City Council of New York has joined those in America's largest cities in passing anti-war resolutions. The New York city councilman whose district includes "Ground Zero" voted for the resolution. County councils and state legislatures are passing similar resolutions.

So while the U.S. Congress takes inane anti-French action, more thoughtful politicians at the grass roots level are taking up the anti-war cause. The vacuum of oversight and pettiness in the halls of Congress is as damnable as the arrogance and bravado in the White House. The anti-French tack of the GOP will cost them dearly. French-Americans are proud of their culture and history. They will make their voices heard in upcoming elections in Louisiana and upper New England (French-American strongholds) and the Republican Party will suffer for their childish and xenophobic tactics. Former Governor of Vermont (French for "Green Mountain") Howard Dean will have a persuasive campaign issue in the upcoming months.

Bush and his miniscule "coalition of the willing" may soon be relegated to the scrap heap of history. And if the past is prologue, it is noteworthy to point out what happened to the three leaders who attended the last allied summit in the Azores in 1971. Pompidou died of cancer in 1974. That same year, Nixon resigned from office hours before he was to be impeached by the House of Representatives and Caetano was ousted in a pro-democracy military coup.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.

Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com

www.vheadline.com Posted: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: While the US Constitution has 7 articles and has lasted more than 200 years our Venezuelan Constitution has 350 articles and is in imminent need to be reformed after 2 years.

The US Constitution is very matter of fact, dealing with government processes while ours is a philosophical treatise.

Our irresponsible legislators approved a Constitution so verbose and diffuse that the first 70 articles could easily be compressed into 10 articles without sacrificing the essentials. Worse still, the legislators approved a Constitution which can not be fulfilled by the State, even if they tried (which they do not).

The whole group of articles on Social and Family Rights, Educational and Economic Rights: numbers 76, 78, 80-89, 99-101, 104, 108, 110-111, 117, are impossible to be honored. Environmental issues mentioned in articles 128 and 129 can not be tackled due to extreme disorganization of the government agencies in charge. Article 141 on the nature of Public Administration is a piece of science fiction.

The articles listed above can not be fulfilled because the State simply can not guarantee what these articles orders the State to guarantee. Those articles of the Constitution which can be fulfilled by the State are often being violated.

Although I am not a Constitutional expert but just a reader of our Constitution, like the President is, I have identified around 60 or more articles of the Constitution which have been or are being violated by President Chavez and/or his fellow government officers. The articles are:

1. The name of the country. Chavez often calls it "The Revolutionary Republic of Venezuela" in violation of its real name...

2. "The government will always be decentralized"... However, Chavez is doing all he can to centralize power. He tells governors. "Go and ask for money to the coupsters...." although he is obliged to send regional governments the money allotted to them by the Constitution.

3. "All government officers should abide by this Constitution"... As I will show, Chavez is not doing this...

4. "The territory can not be the site of foreign installations with military purpose"... There are Colombian guerrilla sites in the Perija range of Venezuela and the government knows it.

5. "The State is obliged to... preserve territorial integrity"... this is not being done ... see above

6. "The State guarantees justice which will be impartial, transparent, independent, without delay"... this is a cruel joke as none of these qualities is present in revolutionary justice.

7. " No one can be arrested without a judicial order ... and will have the right to communicate immediately with relatives, lawyers or friends..." Violated in the case of Carlos Fernandez, who was kidnapped for 10 hours before the family knew where he was.

8. Private property can not be violated without a judicial order"... General Acosta Carles broke into POLAR's plant without a judicial order, acting like a savage, confiscating property arbitrarily, hitting women...

9. "Privacy of communications can only be interfered by judicial order..." In Venezuela government regularly records private conversations and make them public without being penalized.

10. " A person is presumed innocent until proof in contrary"... Chavez accuses opposition leaders and PDVSA managers of saboteurs, bombers and criminals every week over national TV, all without proof. He violates this article of the Constitution.

11. "Every citizen can transit freely within the country or in and out of the country" ... extortion by National Guard and immigration officers is a common occurrence.

12. "Every citizen can request information from public officers and should receive adequate and timely answer"... You must be kidding. Public officers will not do that. Most of them will not even talk to you.

13. "Religious intolerance is forbidden..." But Chavez says publicly that the Catholic church is one of the worst tumors of Venezuelan society.

14. "Financing of political events with State funds is forbidden." Who pays for the Bolivarian Circles, for the buses which transport people to hear Chavez speak, for the program "Alo Presidente" which is a vehicle to browbeat the opposition? The State...

15. "The use of firearms and toxic substances in the control of peaceful marches is strictly forbidden..." The Venezuelan army is the best customer for tear gas in Latin America and they use against the opposition in every march.

71 " Issues of national importance can be the object of a Consultative Referendum whenever required by 10% or more of the voters..." This was duly asked for and rejected by government in February of this year... The Ombudsman did not open his mouth.

91 "Minimum salary should be equal to the Basic Basket of Goods." In reality it is one third of that basket.

93. "Work dismissals contrary to the Constitution are null and void." Tell this to most of the 16,000 dismissed workers of PDVSA.

94. "Labor unions can not be intervened." This is what the government tried to do to CTV.

95. |"Environmental Education is mandatory in public and private Institutions." This is largely unfulfilled.

96. "The State will promote private economic initiative." In reality government has been destroying private economic initiative.

97. "The State guarantees the right to private property." But it promotes the invasion of private property.

120-126. "On the rights of indigenous people to have their economic activities." In practice they have become beggars in the big cities without the government doing anything about it.

127. "The State is obliged to guarantee a clean environment in all respects." This a joke as the government is doing most of the contaminating in the country through oil spills by PDVSA, uncontrolled forest fires, garbage mounting in the streets of most cities.

128. "The State is responsible for damages caused to citizens due to errors on the part of the Public Administration." I have never seen this happening. On the contrary, government is promoting this damage through illegal invasion of private property.

129. "Citizens have the right to be informed promptly of all matters which affect them and to have access to the files related to them." This is rarely done, certainly never done in the case of the small people.

130. "Public officers are at the service of the State and not of interest groups." Chavez is also President of his political parties. The Bolivarian Circles headquarters is the Presidential Palace. All cabinet members attend political rallies. The Mayor Freddy Bernal is the coordinator of urban guerrillas.

131. "No contract of public interest can be signed without the approval of the National Assembly." The oil agreement with Cuba was not. The recent Gas contracts were not.

132. "The Regional States will have an income equal to 20% of the total income of the National Revenue to be distributed among the States." Chavez refuses to do this, in spite of an order of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.

133. "The State guarantees the integrity of the territory." But we have Colombian guerrillas in our midst.

134. "The President is obliged to abide by the Constitution." But he is not doing this.

251-252. "The Council of State is the top advisory council of the government in matters of national policy." But this council has never been convened.

255. "The Law guarantees civic participation in the selection of judges." This has not been done.

256. Requisites to be a member of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice. Not fulfilled by several of the current incumbents.

257. Describes the mechanism to select the members of the TSJ. This mechanism was not followed in selecting the current ones.

258. Has to do with the quality of prisons and of the penal system. Systematically violated by the government.

273-274. "The Moral Power will be autonomous, independent and will investigate al acts against the public ethics." No action has ever been taken by the dishonest incumbents.

279. Details the mechanism of selection of the members of the Moral Power. This mechanism was not followed to name the current incumbents.

280. "The Ombudsman guarantees the Human Rights of citizens and protects them from all abuses of power by the State." The man in charge is rejected by Venezuelans due to his dishonesty and incompetence. He is called the Defender of the Job, not of the people.

281. "Attorney General guarantees that all Agreements and Treaties will be done in compliance of the Constitution." In the case of the Cuban oil agreement this article was violated.

282. "The National Comptroller will supervise national income and expenses and investigate all irregularities against the public patrimony, promoting actions against those irregularities." This man has not taken any action in cases of corruption which total millions of dollars.

283. This article describes the social and economic framework of the Nation. Reality is totally the opposite.

284. "The State will promote agricultural and animal production." But, in practice, the opposite is taking place due to illegal invasions of units of production.

285. "Tourism is an economic activity of national interest. The State will guarantee its development." I would laugh if I was not crying...

286. "Fiscal policy will be based on responsibility. All expenditures should be equal to ordinary income." However, 30% of the 2003 budget will come from new debt. Petroleum income is being used for the most ordinary of expenditures.

287. "Public debt will be limited to the capacity of absorption of the economy." The internal debt has increased five fold in less than 4 years. This is criminal.

288. "No expenses can be allowed except those already in the Budget Law." The violation of this article by Chavez has been systematic and should be enough to put him behind bars.

289. "Budget execution will be accounted for in detail before the National Assembly." This has never been done.

290. "The Central Bank is autonomous in formulating fiscal and monetary policy." In practice they do what Chavez tells them to do.

291. "The Central Bank can not finance fiscal deficits." But this is what they have been doing for the last two years.

292. Describes the Macroeconomic Stabilization Fund and how it operates. Article violated by Chavez several times.

293. "Border Security is top priority in National Security." But our borders have more holes than Gorgonzola cheese (or Gruyere if you prefer).

294. :The Armed Force is a professional, non-political body ... at the service of the Nation and not of a person or political group." However, Chavez says that his revolution is armed with tanks and bazookas and that the armed forces are with the revolution, a term which does not even exist in our Constitution.

Because of these multiple and criminal violations, Venezuelans have come to believe that they should follow Article 350 of the Constitution that says:

"The people of Venezuela will reject any regime, law or authority that violates democratic values or principles or tries to diminish their human rights."

We want this President out.

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email ppcvicep@telcel.net.ve

www.forbes.com Reuters, 03.18.03, 1:31 PM ET By Per Jebsen

NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - In September 1997, Citigroup Inc.'s (nyse: C - news - people) Tobias Levkovich downgraded 18 of the machinery and engineering/construction companies he covered in one day, concerned over the impact from the Asian financial crisis.

Back then, such audacity was far more likely to get an analyst fired than praised.

"It was my 'three V' call," Levkovich said. "I was viciously attacked by competitors, vilified by management and ultimately, vindicated by what happened in the markets."

Levkovich brushed off the brickbats to become senior U.S. institutional equity strategist for Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney banking unit. And now he is making another big call -- a bullish wager on the impending conflict in Iraq.

In several essays since late summer, he has expounded upon his thesis that such a conflict is likely to prove to be quick and, from an investor's point of view, beneficial.

Indeed, a swift resolution will enable stocks to move sharply higher, he predicts. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX>, trading in the mid-800s, will rally to a year-end target of 1,075, a gain of 25 percent or more, Levkovich expects.

"Investors have been clearly paralyzed by Iraqnophobia," Levkovich said. "Yet our base case is for a relatively quick war with a non-tumultuous aftermath."

Barring extreme events, such as searing terrorist attacks, Levkovich expects toppling the current Iraqi regime by the United States and its allies to have positive effects, including reduced energy prices.

Uncertainty from the crisis, along with a recent national strike in Venezuela that lasted for two months, has created a $10 to $15 premium in the per-barrel cost of oil. Once hostilities conclude, much of that premium will likely dissipate, boosting economic growth, he said.

A successful resolution on American terms would, moreover, reduce the uncertainty that has hamstrung U.S. executives and dampened spending, Levkovich said.

"Decisions at the corporate level would be made as opposed to keeping everything in abeyance," he said.

After "three years of everything going wrong," the stock market is undervalued. Money managers worry they could lose their jobs by taking undue risk, Levkovich said.

Equities are cheap when analyzed in terms of various valuation criteria -- and especially so in comparison to fixed-income securities, he said.

"Stocks are screamingly more attractive than bonds," Levkovich said. "Earnings yield gap analysis" indicates a 98 percent chance stocks will perform better than bonds, he said.

In the last week, investors have embraced the bullish case, sending the S&P 500 up about 8 percent.

BEAT THE MARKET

Before he became Salomon's stocks guru in 2001, Levkovich spent 13 years covering companies such as heavy-equipment makers Caterpillar Inc. (nyse: CAT - news - people) and Deere & Co. (nyse: CAT - news - people).

The lengthy stint prepared him for his current role because such businesses are both global and "thematic," in that their shares may respond to current investment notions, he said. Also, he honed his ability to ferret out facts, he said.

"I just love beating the market. I get a real kick out of that," Levkovich said. "It's the joy of discovering things before others do. You don't have to use inside information, you need to use insight ... the data that's available."

Levkovich often arrives at the office between 6:30 and 7 a.m., and leaves as late as 9 p.m. He devotes his weekends, from Friday evening to Sunday morning, to his family. His hard work has paid off: He was ranked the No. 1 analyst by Institutional Investor magazine for machinery in 1998-2000, and No. 1 for construction/engineering in 1998 and 1999. In 2002, he was named runner-up in the portfolio strategy category.

"Tobias produces some of the more unique work put out by the Street. It's not your usual pedestrian stuff," said Joe Rosenberg, chief investment strategist at conglomerate Loews Corp. (nyse: LTR - news - people).

"I genuinely enjoy having him come in and sitting down with our group," said Will Braman, chief investment officer at John Hancock Funds, which has about $25 billion under management.

Levkovich provides a broad overview in give-and-take sessions that John Hancock fund managers, who may focus on a narrower slice of the market, find helpful, Braman said.

Last year, Levkovich dropped now-bankrupt telephone and data services company WorldCom Inc. <WCOEQ.PK> from his recommended list when it was still highly rated by former colleague Jack Grubman.

"He did it in the face of his firm being the investment banker and the analyst being the leading analyst on the stock," Loews' Rosenberg said. "It takes a lot of courage to do that."

"He's not prone to hyping situations or being overly pessimistic," said Bob Turner, chairman and chief investment officer of Turner Investment Partners, which has about $8 billion of assets.

Levkovich's insights are particularly useful at a time when stocks are apparently in a trading range, Turner said.

LOVE OF POLITICS

Levkovich, who is Canadian, graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a degree in commerce, and attended Boston University's Graduate School of Management.

In 1988, he joined Smith Barney, which ultimately became a part of today's Citigroup. This week, he picked up what he describes as a "very pointy" Lucite paperweight marking his 15 years with the firm.

"Management has treated me fairly over the years," he said. "I've had some wonderful relationships with people whom I've worked with and that's worth more than the extra bucks" he would have made by jumping ship, he said.

Levkovich, 41, is married, and has two teen-age daughters, as well as a 9-year-old son. He lives on Long Island, commuting by car to Salomon's downtown headquarters. The Levkoviches have family in Israel and often spend their vacations there.

A fan of Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum spy thrillers, Levkovich says a long love of politics animates his work.

"I have a strong interest in politics and the impact of politics on today's environment," he said. "I grew up sitting on my father's knee watching the Democratic and Republican conventions," he said.

(The Profile column appears weekly. Comments or questions on this one can be e-mailed to per.jebsen(at)reuters.com.)