Carl Icahn Apple play reveals extent of dementia

Carl is getting on in years, God love him.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, but he's kinda let things slip and slide a bit these last few years.

He's playing the "activist investor" card again. It's worked before and it might work this time.

He's taken a relatively small position in Apple and therefore presumes that he can dictate to Cook and company what's best for Icahn's share position.

If Apple would only use its cash hoard to buy up even more Apple shares, Carl's Apple stake would vastly appreciate! He's confident that the shares he's bought in the low 400's could go to $700!

That's the way of American capitalism today; Icahn brings utterly nothing to Apple, but fully believes that his billionaire status and reputation as a bully should dictate corporate strategy at the ailing computer giant.

Sooner or later a corporate board will find the balls to tell these "activist investor" types to go fuck themselves.

The sooner the better.

Pot-addled blogger predicted fate of Twinky snacks

Hey, I just care about Twinkys!

But eleven months ago I pretty much predicted today's story about the fate of Hostess Brands. CNN reports that everything that Falling Downs claimed would happen has come true. Read the story.

With the connivance of the bankruptcy courts and the Teamsters Union, they have slashed wages, rolled back pensions, and cut the health care contributions.

What the CNN story does not report is that this entire bankruptcy was engineered by the hedge-fund "entrepreneurs" who control the company.

Just an oversight, I'm sure...

The annual pilgrimage

This is the time of year we like to head north for a few days.

We camp on the north shore of Lake Superior, along the Schrieber - Marathon stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway. We have a campsite where we can see the lake and the CPR line that cuts overhead along the steep Canadian Shield cliffs.

This is an area that always knocks you out with it's natural beauty. The rocks, the trees, that great inland sea. For me it always draws me into history as well.

The history of the CPR for example.

It's everywhere up here. In fact, it's everywhere all over the country.

The Scottish investors who were behind the CPR got $25 million cash and a land grant of 25 million acres for building the railway.

The history of the CPR is in flux again. Some New York hedge fund manager figures he can milk a few billion out of the old cow. He's just parachuted an American CEO in after winning a proxy battle to get rid of the old management.

Nothing new in that. After the first year of construction of the CPR, the owners turfed out their senior management and brought in an American. He made himself rich building that railway.

That railway and the subsidiaries that have been spun off from it have made many people rich over the past 130 years, so maybe there's enough juice left for this latest crew of paper-shufflers.

None of which takes away from the achievement of those laborers and blacksmiths and miners and carpenters and engineers and surveyors who actually made that rock cut we're looking at, and put the tracks up there.

But don't get me started... I come here to get away from thinking.