Coal Is Back! -- Reuters -- August 28, 2017

Note: one can't buy shares of Burlington Northern any more but there are other regional rail monopolies still publicly traded. Just saying.

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Rail news: from Reuters -- thousands of rail workers return to work as Buffett's BNSF's volumes rise.

BNSF Railway Co has called back roughly 4,000 of the 5,000 workers who were furloughed across its system last year, reflecting stronger volumes of coal, grain and intermodal containers and trailers.

Like other major U.S. railroads, the company owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc has shed thousands of union and management jobs in recent years as it strives to improve efficiency and cut costs.

BNSF, the top U.S. coal carrier, laid off roughly 5,000 employees from mid-2015 to early 2016. The Texas-based company and its peers faced cost pressures from plunging coal volumes as the strong U.S. dollar hurt exports of the fuel and utilities switched to burning cheaper natural gas.

BNSF brought back roughly 4,000 of those workers as coal volumes rose this year, along with high levels of grain and upticks in intermodal containers and trailers, and sand used in hydraulic fracturing.

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Doing Homework Together

I was unaware that Sophia (3 years old) had any homework -- LOL --but whatever it was, it appears that she is doing well -- note the smiling face on her "desktop."