[1rudeboy]

One of these days, someone needs to explain the phrase "can't win for losing" to me.

BNI was a China play. LOLOLOL

[dalebert]

bump

[Greysard]

This purchase has another aspect: the railway will be the only affordable method of transportation of cargo if affordable oil at some point ends.

End of oil will mean end of trucks and cars. Railway locomotives, currently using diesel fuel, are already more efficient than trucks. But if even that is not enough, they can always go back to coal (and steam.) There is enough coal in the country. While these steamers won't be able to pull as much as modern engines do, they will keep cities supplied with food - and there will be plenty of demand for that, on "name your price" basis.

[qwertypie]

Buffet is not the benign Uncle Warren. He takes a position after finding a way to rig is politically in his favor. He’s gone beyond his initial product evaluation and then buy mode.

Somehow, he’s calculated that the trucking network will be screwed with, so as to create a dominant railroad position.

[the invisib1e hand]

well, if they're making drops at every Wal-Mart, who's gonna be buying that garbage if not Americans? The premise that it's "a bet on China" presupposes that what's good for the American consumer (in liquidity, if not in judgment) is good for China. So it's really a bet on the consumer's liquidity, if the premise is correct.

I sort figured it was an asset play. Lots of real estate under all those tracks.