I have picked out the best quotes from the article titled:
WAS BAUPOST'S MEGA INVESTMENT A MEGA MISTAKE
If you wish to skip my delightful and always insightful analysis, skip to the end and click on the link.
Otherwise, hold on to your hat and here we go:
...which showed signs of mismanagement since the beginning, if not from a project viability perspective, certainly with respect to PR....
Numerous missteps in the wake of the proposal filing in the Spring of 2011 prompted Highland to fire spokesman Michael Daniher, replacing him with Lindsay Broadhead of the PR Firm Hill & Knowlton.
Broadhead may not be faring much better in light of a new set of inflammatory claims, having asserted that the project “simply can’t have a negative environmental impact”
A quick glance at Highland’s own web site continues in the same ingratiating vein
This hubris is problematic not least of all for stretching what most people would consider reasonable truth, but also for its tonal discord with the sentiment of the community.
Its most egregious offenses have been myriad “no environmental impact” statements that few logical people would believe are true.
A final factor stripping investor value away from the project is the domino effect of negative buzz, made highly visible by the grassroots efforts of social media savvy opponents.
One Facebook group, aptly named “Stop The Quarry!,” has upwards of 5,000 followers, and has done a better job of besmirching the project’s image than has official spokesperson Lindsay Broadhead of bolstering it.
AH hell, the entire article is great, click here and read it for yourself....http://www.valuewalk.com/2012/01/21634/#.TwZJ-jX2a8A
Beth, if you are out there, talk some sense into Seth now. Please!!!
ReplyDeleteHey Folks,
ReplyDeleteFor all that this information is finally starting to gain interest in the swell of opposition, please consider that Baupost's 16% investment in Highland's is carefully held for reasons far beyond a quarry. Much as it's investment in Bixby, this is about Baupost's position in a system of globalization and influence that grew out of Reagan/Thatcher (and Mulroney and subsequent) neoliberal economics (and the accompanying social disintegration). Seth just became one of the boomer big players in it. He is a craftsman, dare I say it, an artist. For all that I believe that this era of imperialism is as loathsome as others, (perhaps even more so as we have history to teach us better, technology to do better and clarity as to what will happen if it continues), Klarman and others simply are further up the food chain in a system that relies on conquest and is managed by organizations including the WTO and IMF. They are bad guys to be sure but they are detached. They're kind of the "godfathers" of a (now) traditional worldwide system. Unfortunately, they always have a ready and eager stable of idiot mischiefmakers and wannabes who will do anything to climb through the ranks to play with the big boys (but who will never be allowed in). These are the Lowndes, Scherers and Izhakoffs (the Danihers and Broadheads just being pathetic leeches) and their anonymous partners. These are the ones committing the atrocities. In plain language, "Seth owns a private bank for Chrissake! He's like Goldman Sachs but even less regulated!" Lets concentrate on putting away the mischief makers who thunk up this s**t. Then the world can get around to Seth. Trickle up.
http://www.valuewalk.com/2010/06/buffett-anounces-favorite-investors/
ReplyDeleteI thought Baupost was the 100% investor in Highlands. If not, who has the rest?
ReplyDelete12:03,
ReplyDeleteSo much has been skewed in the last 9 months. Please, find out what's thought worthy.
Hey 9.16 pm, if I KNEW what was thoughtworty in this war, I wouldn't wake up in cold sweats every night. Shovelling through the bullshit issued by Highlands is a full time job.
ReplyDelete