"At least to me, the improvemenit in gross margins this quarter was the key indicator that Bezos might pull off his master plan"
that or WS has to move to the "gross margin" story as sale increases slow down so that story looks more flimsey. The gross margin story coveniently leaves out the more thatn offsetting fufullment expense increase: which could be a smorgasboard of stuff the might be clasified as "cost of goods sold" in their 3rd party business. More of an accounting of where expenses are placed then anyting else so far: as it allows the hype of the gross margin story. Bottom line: AMZN hasn't achieved the botttom line results that were expected off a couple years ago off the $2.52 peak base of earnings. Whether Bezos is pulling off a vision or WS is merely trying to keep the AMZN bull story intact, time will tell. Tapping the bond market shows they had troulbe funding themselves from internal operations. Option strikes, positions be damned.