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Berkshire Hathaway ordered to divest two railroads
Note to self- check to see if I own any railroads.
Big government isn’t a problem for kook liberals like the one running Berkshire Hathaway. Until that same big government turns around and bites the kook liberals. As a card carrying kook liberal, Warren Buffett should know how this works. His mistake wasn’t getting involved with BNSF. His mistake was failing to get Obama to control the big government attack dogs. Apparently Buffett didn’t throw enough money at the re-elect the Big Mistake candidate.
The Southern Oregon Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society would love to receive the WCTU as a donation to our chapter, and that would be a 501(c)3 tax-exempt donation. We, in turn, have the troops with the know-how to run it properly. Sounds like a win-win from here!
What with all the companies that own other companies, this issues of “ownership” could get a lot more complicated than this case very quickly…
Aren’t there other things more important than 20 miles of trackage for the Federal Surface Transportation Board to be concerned about?
Looks like another gov. hack trying to justify their job.
How do you not know you own two railroads? Talk about too big to fail…
This just an example of proper enforcement of an obscure legal provision that was put in place to prevent some sort of abuse that occurred in the past, or which was seen as an abuse. The STB is just following the law. If you don’t like the picture, then let’s change the law. But if the law is relaxed, someone can and probably will do just what it was intended to avoid, and all will be outraged.
I can’t believe that the Oricle of Omaha didn’t catch this. What do they think he is, Jay Gould, Vanderbilt or other robber barons with such an addition of trackage?
No issue and no business is too small for some government employ to harass. I did think some were too big however.
Let’s face it, the STB is correct in their ruling and they are an arm of the NObama administration. Buffet should be delighted to comply so he can bow and scrape before the Great Charlatan and show what a good(?) citizen he is.
Mr. Strawbridge, judging by the number of comments, I’d say the Trains staff member has good judgement as to what is newsworthy. Of course, we do have to subtract your two duplicate posts to arrive at the proper number of posts submitted so far!
Berkshire Hathaway has to conform to the rules just like everyone else in their game. It’s not like they’re some pathetic “little guy” being attacked by big, bad government meanies. BH will have its ducks all in a row by December as promised, or else. BH is certainly a capitalist success story, and we all benefit so long as they play by the same rules on a level field, or so we hope. BH has more than enough legal power to figure out how to balance its asset books. No pity here.
The feds were upset when BH took the BNSF private. Feds had lost control of BNSF. BNSF DID NOT have to report every little thing to feds. BNSF IS A PRIVATE COMPANY.
The short line ownership is inconcequential. The ownership of BNSF is Very newsworthy, and it is being challenged.
After looking over this stream of comments, I’m a bit disturbed about the number of people carping about the STB for making this decision. Instead of questioning the propriety of the law itself, or suggesting how it may be changed, too many of you resort to making juvenile comments suggesting that there is something conspiratorial or unfair involved, that the STB is somehow “picking on” Berkshire Hathaway, or that this is an example of “big government” having nothing else to do.
AND YET…
[1.] Railroads themselves are built on a mountain of nit-picking little laws and regulations, and always have been. Do you think that an engineer can go thru a “red board” and just explain it away to his boss by saying “Aw, I knew that section of track was being worked on, and there was nothing coming towards me.”? Try violating that, or any number of seemingly-inconsequential little regulations and see what happens!
[2.] I’ll also bet that there are a number of these complainers who are modelers or other railgeeks who spend countless hours fussing and arguing over minutiae, and yet, when asked about the workings of [a necessarily very big and complicated] government, dourly shrugs it off as the machinations of a malevolent Big Brother. Perhaps a reality check is overdue for some of you.
Remember! The Surface Transportation Board (STB) is a federal agency - a beauracracy that makes simple things complex, and a shadow of the former ICC!
Yes, Berkshire Hathaway does need to follow the rules like everyone else. Still, this sounds like “BIG BROTHER” is sticking their “FEDERAL” nose into something that doesn’t need to be “REGULATED” like they claim. This doesn’t seem to be worth the time or trouble, but rather just an excuse for government to force it’s “AUTHORITY” off on private enterprise.
Mr. Kyle and Mr. Kovalo’s comments bring to mind two of my favorite remarks of late.
“GOD IS GREAT, BEER IS GOOD, and people are CRAZY”
also " YOU DIDN’T BUILD IT ALONE, YOU HAD HELP FROM THE GOVERNMENT " I can’t wait for Nov. 6th election, to VOTE
some sensibility back into our government, before it’s too late !!!