VERY Odd Warren Buffet BUYS entire railway company... FEMA Trains?

Interesting purchase for Mr. Buffet I would say.

Have you ever heard of the "Glomar Expolrer" which was built by billionaird Howard Hughes in the early 1970's? It was a "scientific research" ship built to roam the oceans and conduct science. The problem was that the "Glomar Explorer" was actually a ship built for the CIA and used to bring up a sunken Russian submarine covertly.

Now what does that have to do with Mr. Buffets purchase of an entire railway you ask? Maybe nothing at all OR just maybe the "government" is working with Mr. Buffet on something bigger (que the sinister music).

Not saying it is actually happening that way but if it worked in the 1970's why not do it again if you are the CIA or FEMA etc....I don't pretend to know what that might be but (sinister music) but it could be possible based on the "Glomar Explorer" project....

Thoughts on this possibility?

I am by no means saying it is related to any government activities but I will say that a man in his position ALWAYS has alterior motives in their purchases. Investors like him plan things well in advance. There is more to this story, now we just need to find out what "more" is.

Guys - I have the feeling you forgot something! Was not your president Obama promising billions to improve the railway system? What is the best way to get the money other than BEING the railway?

I'd say he thinks theres money in it.

Its what businessmen do. They speculate to accumulate. Its been happening for years.

Is this a case of trying to fit the conspiracy to a real-world event?

reply to post by neformore

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Or is it a case of everyone trying to make a conspiracy look like a real world event. I just don't know. It's odd.

There is money to be make on the RR

this is from 2007

Since Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, plus many others now, have gone after more railroad holdings, we thought it would be interesting to see how short sellers are acting in the names. Supposedly you can now make money betting against Warren Buffett these days, but that all depends on YOUR timing versus HIS. If you think that Bill Gates’ Cascade investment vehicle doesn’t have some foresight into issues 3 to 6 months ahead of time, well I won’t say it. So here is how the short selling looks in the railroads from April to May

STOCK (Ticker) MAY07 APR07 Change
Union Pacific (UNP) 4.41M 3.91M 12.8%
Burlington North (BNI) 6.19M 5.8M 6.1%
Canadian Nat’l (CNI) 1.79M 1.40M 28.2%
CSX Corp. (CSX) 29.27M 27.97M 4.6%
Canadian Pac. (CP) 1.30M 1.06M 22.2%

lower short interest….

Norfolk Southern (NSC) 5.47M 7.93M -31%
Kansas City So. (KSU) 5.30M 6.43M -17.6%

NSC was Buffett’s top holding in the sector, and CNI was Gates’ top holding in the rails. Both BNI and UNP were Buffett’s other holdings in the sector.

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Maybe he looking ahead for an intercontinental RR. Merger with CSX or the NS ?


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[edit on 4-11-2009 by TrainDispatcher]

reply to post by TrainDispatcher

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Could he be setting the railroad up to fail? How else to better your short selling game than to create failure so as to short sell a stock?

Warren Buffet does NOT buy assests to collapse them, thats what small private equity companies used to do. a la "Wall Street" greed is good and so on.

WB buys management teams more than he buys sectors of economy. If a buisness, any buisness has a good balance sheet and effective mgt. he might purchase it and then leave it alone and let the mgt team do its thing. Make him money. At the core WB is a value investor, read his books or the books about him.



[edit on 4-11-2009 by jacksmoke]

Don't forget that the railroads are some of the largest land owners in the country. Besides the thousands of miles of active track, they also own huge tracts of land for both discontinued track as well as "future expansion." The land alone makes a railroad look like a very sound investment. Add to it what other posters have said about both Obama's rhetoric about investing in our infrastructure and bolstering rail, along with the various green proponents who view rail (and future technology rail) as a very viable alternative to trucks and aircraft. Again, it all looks like a very sound investment to me.

Not FEMA.

If you're smart, you'd invest in what he's investing too. Buffet owned a portion and now purchases the entire organization? He's got a business plan and it's time to invest in it.

reply to post by LeaderOfProgress

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There are alot of special interest groups lobbying for industry that is heavily invested in coal. What better way to thwart Obama's crack down on the coal industry than to have a person in the power elite be a major investor in a company that controls most of it's transportation out of the mines? Hard to fight such money.

Has it crossed anybody's mind that this is just another deal that Mr. Buffet intends to make money on, with no conspiratorial strings attached? I know that's an odd thing to say, but think about this for a bit. Railroads are about the most fuel-efficient method for long-haul high volume freight shipment. As fuel prices rise, the efficiency of the railroad becomes a bigger and bigger advantage. As the economy rebounds, there will be more goods to ship...and therefore, more profit for the railroads. In short, if you were expecting an economic recovery to begin soon (in this context, within the next year or so), and expecting fuel prices to rise (which they will do...and even faster than usual if "Cap and Trade" becomes the law of the land), railroads would be a *very* attractive investment. As for "Why now?", the bottom of a recession is almost always a good time to make major acquisitions, if you're one of the lucky few who have available capital to invest.

reply to post by Brother Stormhammer

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This is a conspiracy site on which we look for conspiracies. If we wanted just to accept the story as is then we wouldn't be on this site. Now with that being said, yes it might be a normal situation, but it might not. That is why we are trying to dig into it.