Barron’s does a quick reality check on Intel’s earnings by talking to none other than Fred Hickey.

After noting that except for gains from its equity portfolio, Intel’s net income in the final quarter of ‘04 would have been lower than in ‘03, he shrugged off the company’s optimistic forecast thus: “Intel has been the patron saint of bad forecasting for at least a decade.” And, he sighs, why anyone ascribes any credibility to Intel’s forecasts is beyond him. What’s worse, in his view, is to extrapolate Intel’s projection to the rest of the semiconductor industry. To do so, even though, as he fumes, that projection contradicts every piece of evidence available, is, he declares, “sheer lunacy.”