Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by MichaelSol [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton Interesting that the lines on the "I would have saved them" list might have provided some relief for handling the huge shift in the movement of consumer goods from domestic manufacturing origins to west coast ports. I would like to see the 1980 prediction of that shift. Maybe coal is different? As late as 1989, no one anywhere in the coal business was forecasting the growth of Powder River Basin coal production to any where near to today's levels. [/quote] I have here the Port of Seattle studies from 1975-1980 that predicted just about exactly the growth of intermodal import export that actually occured over the 30 year projections involved. When Odyssey Partners bought into Milwaukee Road, they relied on US Department of Energy projections that showed that Powder River coal use was going to explode, and was in fact already exploding between 1974 and 1980. The problem with your arguments here is that you would have to argue that the people and agencies that did, in fact, accurately predict the growth, were somehow wrong, even though their projections were right on the mark. [/quote] Wonderful to use 20/20 hindsight to justify your arguments of today. Unfortunately, the time frames you are speaking of were prior to the EPA regs favoring low sulphur coal and although government projections may have been out there, such research is notoriously inaccurate. Even today customer projections themselves, which should be much more accurate than abstract government generalizations are often 50% or more off the mark. No responsible management deploys assets based upon such vague information. That would result in lengthy class action litigation by shareholders.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag