Re: The definition of insanity
so selling off your buildings and renting them bark is barking mad
It was the Done Thing for a while in uber-capitalist circles. Something to do with propping up share prices by extracting value from existing assets in order to pay dividends.
And, like all such short-term measures is utter, utter futile madness in a long-term view.
Sadly, CEOs and Boards are now not selected for the long-term view - they are selected to 'maximise shareholder value' in the short term. Then, when the company involved get into financial difficulty[1], said CEO and Board regretfully leave with their diamond-studden golden parachutes.
[1] Which they inevitably do. Like the "buy the company with debt raised against the company assets" that became popular in the early 2000's and directly lead to the collapse of a number of large companies when their market share declined and they could no longer service the debt incurred in buying themselves. As happened with Toys 'R Us.. (and nearly has happened with Dell).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
