For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission has tried to stamp out "whisper numbers" about earnings and other "guidance" that corporate executives pass along to friendly analysts, who then pass that information to select clients.
A year ago Arthur Levitt, the chairman of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission SECC) said that corporate managements should make market-moving data available to everyone at once, not just initially to friendly analysts.
For the friendly analyst there are gourmet meals, rides on private jets, subsidised nights at strip clubs and, with luck, a bigger slice of profits.
After entertaining a few questions from friendly stock analysts and investors, Mr. Edelman cut off the call moments after a woman intoned, "There are no other questions at this time, sir".
Worried that the public is growing impatient with hugely profitable state-backed entities amid rising inflation, the government's state planning agency is striking a more consumer-friendly tone, analysts say.
Nashism has several analogues, Mr Illarionov argues, in countries such as Libya, Chad and Syria.Piffle, says Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Kremlin-friendly political analyst.
With his mild manner and fluent English, Prince Salman may be merely the monarchy's friendly face, skeptical analysts say.
But in what may be the biggest controversy surrounding Terayon, the company's detractors argue that Terayon and analysts friendly to it have overstated the advantage of Terayon's technology.
It continued to benefit from its teenager-friendly Express division, analysts said, but investors were less confident about the Structure and Lane Bryant divisions, both of which reported decreasing sales.
Coupled with a second One Million Moms' protest of J.C. Penney -- the group initially criticized the retailer's hiring of openly gay Ellen DeGeneres as a pitchwoman and called for a boycott -- such news has created a more electric platform for launching any new gay-friendly brand message, analysts said.
But key Blair aides, led by David Miliband, head of the Downing Street policy unit and his "second term" team, have been canvassing ideas among party analysts and friendly thinktanks such as Demos and the Institute for Public Policy Research.
