Stardate 20010802.1212 (On Screen): This article is extremely interesting because it explains what the "Goodwill" entry on corporate quarterly announcements really means. It isn't quite what I thought it was, and in a sense it's even worse. However, his claim that it represents paper losses isn't quite correct. If it is indeed a case of trading new stock for an overpriced acquisition, then it really is important that it appear on the corporate spreadsheet because the new stock dilutes existing stock. It needs to be shown as a loss so that the overall worth of the company is calculated correctly in terms of assets-per-share.
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