Those three investment partners had, in typical vulture-capital style, used Hostess like one giant credit card to award themselves bonuses to tune of $1.2 billion — most of it, naturally, borrowed against the company’s assets — and it simply succumbed to the weight of debt.
Again. It’s the second time in a decade — which is why bankruptcy wags say the company is in “Chapter 22″ rather than merely Chapter 11. Loaded down, astonishingly, with nearly $1 billion in debt, privately held Hostess faces oblivion if its creditors, owners, and unions can’t agree on how to restructure. CNN Money 26 July 2012
Add to this lethal stew a post-bankruptcy company management divorced from the marketplace reality that was all too willing to play a badly-miscalculated game of chicken with workers, hoping they could eke out enough concessions to glean a few more bonuses for themselves before the house of cards came tumbling down a second time.
“Despite Greg Rayburn’s insulting and disingenuous statements of the last several months, the truth is that Hostess workers and the union have absolutely no responsibility for the failure of this company. That responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of the company’s decision makers.” Official statement issued by the Baker’s Union 16 November 2012
As part of a lawsuit back in the late 1980′s, I was required to submit a financial statement of my net worth.
To my surprise, they said I was worth something considerably north of half-a-million bucks. That was back when salmon prices were high, the runs abundant and the weather mostly decent.
Then came the 90′s where, even though run strength was still good but softer, prices for salmon dropped like a rock.
From a high in 1988 of $2.25 / lb, competition from “salmon” reared in huge agri-business farms dropped our price to a mere 47-cents / pound… and it stubbornly stayed there for a number of years.
I had to cut back the size of my operation and my crew, several of my most reliable buyers went bankrupt, leaving me holding the bag with nothing to show for much of my year’s catch, and my net worth plummeted.
Most of that North American competition came from our neighbors to the south in British Columbia.
BC under the tenure of the Social Credit party, in particular, embraced aquaculture, as it was called, and farms popped up all along Canada’s Pacific coast.
Despite studies warning that concentrating fish into small areas was destined to have dire long-term consequences, the absence of any immediate, large-scale disasters offset most concerns. The money was big and the industry — mostly financed by giant agri-corporations — had deep pockets and an effective lobbying arm.
By the late 90′s and early 2000′s, troubling signs began showing on BC’s wild salmon population. Wild commercial fishermen on BC’s northern coast noticed fewer fish in the Skeena River, others found lice-infested fish that were anemic and vulnerable to predation.
Things continued to worsen, but only incrementally … until 2009.
That year, not only did fish returning to northern BC rivers drop off sharply, the entire run in BC’s biggest river, the Fraser, didn’t show up at all.
The entire region was declared a disaster area and, in typical Canadian fashion, an inquiry begun.
The results of that inquiry, headed by Justice Bruce Cohen of B.C.’s Supreme Court, was three years in the making and was just released a week ago Tuesday.
The Harper government — who, as those of you who know me already know , I hold in pretty low regard — has essentially said their management of Fisheries and Oceans (the rough Canadian equivalent of our NOAA / NFMS (National Fisheries Mgt Service) would not be changed.
By “changed,” they mean proposed budget and regulatory cutbacks would not be altered. The current government is rolling-out its own mini-austerity budget, albeit it less draconian that our own impending “cliff.”
An interesting footnote to this story is that the 2009 collapse in BC sent prices for our wild-caught Alaska salmon into a range not seen since 1990, so my prices — and my net wealth — is rebounding.
Meanwhile, Canadian wild-salmon fishermen are the ones suffering as fisheries there continue to struggle.
Anways, here’s what CBC-TV had to say about the report and reactions to it, in Canada:
By the way, I also included a short story that followed, dealing with a new British study that shows what we’ve been maintaining all along: you cannot substitute “processed Omega 3 oils” for eating the real thing.
Unlike heavy oils from, say cod, the heart-healthier variety do not endure processing well… Flax seed oils seem to survive best into pill or supplemental form, so if you just can’t bring yourself to eat salmon, sardines, mackerel or herring, take that as your alternative.
Koch Industries :: an industrial and consumer products manufacturer
I have to wait a whole two weeks to see Daniel Craig and maybe get another glimpse of his handsome face and sexy body.
Oh, the sweet agony.
Okay, so I was spoiled by all the cool features Multiply gave us, but I’m not having a real fun experience here.
There’s just no good equivalent “INBOX” feature that shows you all the new comments and postings from your friends, let alone friends-of-friends and that “universal inbox” thing is totally lame.
It also doesn’t selectively delete from the list those things you recently commented on until someone else makes a comment.
The guys at Xanga would do well to take a visit to Multiply and find out what they were doing right, over there.
Better yet, maybe they should get the code that Multipy is apparently going to abandon; it seems a waste of good .html to me.
So… if I don’t settle here, were DO I go?
Good question.
I’ve been looking more and more at blogster. They have a decent inbox-type feature, allow for some customization of your website and your blog entries stand a chance of being read by someone other than your small enclave of friends.
The list of “tried that and ditched it” sites is growing longer by the day… and I’m totally out of Ipernity, MyOwnSpace360 (they’re snoopy), and others.
*sigh*
This is becoming much more difficult than it should.
Perhaps it missed it, but I’ve been waiting patiently for Lowe’s CEO Robert A. Niblock or someone else from corporate to apologize for that shameless kowtowing to the Florida Family Association last December.
Right on schedule, we’re about to start our kitchen remodel this month, along with two bathrooms and the garage early next year and I need to know if Lowe’s issued anything more than a bland ‘apology,’ for pulling sponsorship of the TLC show ‘All American Muslim.’
As an atheist, I could give a rat’s assabout the show or its subject, but as a civil libertarian I really do care about equality of treatment regardless of one’s religious affiliation.
So… did you apologize or not? I’d like to know before I start scouting prices on cabinets, counter-tops, appliances and flooring for my kitchen.
Your store is just blocks from my local Home Depot and a nice Ace Hardware.
You DO have competition, you realize?
I just bought a new garage door and that business did NOT go to Lowe’s. That, despite a coupon they mailed me earlier this month giving me a nice 10% discount on my next purchase of $100 or more.
More thoughts spawned by Brokeback Mountain:
His boss is cool with him being gay, except … that while he doesn’t understand the whole thing about men being attracted to men, he does understand men wanting to have sex, even if it’s with another man.
He understands that men need sexual release…. so the sex part, that’s cool with him.
I mean, he shakes visibly just thinking about it.
Maybe it’s because kissing means much more than simple animal instinct.
That’s why I was suprised at how much kissing was shown in Brokeback Mountain.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw the movie “Making Love” where Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin kiss in the hallway.
The entire audience in the theater groaned when they did… well, except for me and one other guy.
For some reason, guys kissing freaks straight people out.
Don’t really know why. Can’t say I’ve still figured it out.
I mean, I don’t freak at straight people kissing… well, sometimes I do, but not for the same reasons…
I know some straight guys who have a minor problem with the idea of guys f**king, but it’s nothing compared to seeing two guys kissing.
BBM took home some impressive wins, but not a couple that I was hoping for.
BBM did well at the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, leading the herd with 4 awards, including:
I, frankly, was cheering for Heath Ledger (Ennis) for Best Actor, but I knew he was up against some stiff competition from Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Truman Copote character. We’ll never know, of course, but I’d guess he was a real close runner-up.
Still, this was a pretty impressive win and — if form from recent years holds — it bodes well for the Oscars… not that I have that much faith or interest in them.
The Oscars crowd is a collection of self-serving, spoiled rotten brats who fancy themselves liberals but who are really, at heart, no more enlightened than your typical Alabama legislator.
This year, Jonathan Stewart Liebowitz (you probably know him more without the last part of his name attached) is hosting and year after year the AMPAS crowd vote for pictures that, well, do better at the box office than they do as art.
I’m hopeful and there’s a chance the voters won’t let me down, but I’ve been let down by voters before and I expect they will again… if not while voting for Best Actor, they will for President (or Congress) where it really matters.
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