The media are wasting our time with their platitudes to the management performance of Stonecipher. This is a crock. It's all part of the myths started by Wall Street in order to fabricate their stories that facilitate their selling stock to the (deliberately misinformed) public.

The truth is that during 2004, operating metrics under Stonecipher were not equal to Boeing's (NYSE: BA) five-year average. From where I sit, the only increases in measurable performance at Boeing under Stonecipher were (1) his personal stock options, (2) his unfulfilled promises of sales of the 7E7, and (3) the number of daily news releases that were published by the company.

The bottom line is that under Stonecipher, Boeing was made to eat the lunch of EADS Airbus, and that's the only legacy that should be following Harry out the door.

As to my assessment of the Boeing stock, it is far over-priced at $58, and is soon headed south, probably by 14 percent or more in the next two quarters.

BCara@BillCara.com

P.S. Reader Jon sent along the following note:

"I'm probably not the only one who's going to tell you this, but the chart for BA is bullish. It just broke out of a pretty long range (pattern) and is currently sitting at the end of a bull flag. I wouldn't be fading this one right now based on the chart."

Jon, I don't see a "bull flag" or a "long" base. Maybe the leaves aren't aligning properly in my tea cup. All I see is that since bottoming in March 2003 at $25, BA was up 132 percent to $58, based on improvement to the fundamentals that are somewhat less than the five-year averages. I recognize what Afghanistan and then Iraq and now maybe Syria (or is it Iran or North Korea) has been doing to help this company and the promotion of its stock, but otherwise I'm not impressed. As soon as State Street Bank money managers get over the fact that Airbus has eaten the Boeing lunch, the stock will be back to $50. IMHO. Then again, I've been wrong before, including on BA.