If you are not reading the commentary we receive then you are missing some gems. One of our regulars reminded me of something "my pal Warren" said: "... find companies which can be run by idiots because sooner or later an idiot will be running it."

In Buffett's case he can actually call them up and talk to them. In many cases, he could probably get them to resign. For most of us, all we know is basic things like how's the stock price or has the idiot been indicted?

During the private equity boom years, one of the most common criticisms of the private equity kingpins went like this: "All they do is buy companies at a discount, leverage up the balance sheet, and use the cash flow to pay off the debt -- extracting millions in fees in the process."

Well now that access to cheap, covenant-lite debt has dried up, buyout shops are turning to the other option for making money: operational improvements. A new white paper released by Grant Thornton and the Association for Corporate Growth -- admittedly a private equity trade group -- found that 42% of private equity firms are devoting between 51% and 75% of their time on the management of companies they already control.

The Associated Press reports that many publicly traded U.S. companies are cutting back on the amount of forecasting they're willing to do, leaving investors in the dark with little in the way of "forward-looking statements" to rely on.

It's easy to understand why: The tough economy has given many companies trouble in meeting their forecasts, and hell hath no fury like a stockholder or Wall Street analyst whose investment hasn't performed as well as management had predicted.

According to the AP, "A third of the 600 companies responding to a recent survey by the National Investor Relations Institute said their policies about financial guidance had changed. Most eliminated or limited the amount of guidance they provide about earnings and revenue."

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "The nonfinancial firms in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index have a total of $811 billion in cash and marketable securities on their books," according to calculations by Goldman Sachs. This amount not only is "just shy of a record high in nominal terms," it is also "up $43 billion from the depths of the financial crisis last fall."

Cash piles are increasing as companies slash capital expenditures and pull back on share buybacks, which seems stupid given how much lower stock prices are than when companies were buying back their own shares with reckless abandon.

Analyst Phil Weiss of Argus Research is none too impressed with the recent debt offering by Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK). The natural gas concern on Wednesday sold $1 billion in six-year notes, with proceeds going toward outstanding indebtedness under CHK's credit facility. The offer was hiked from its initial planned value of $500 million.

Additionally, Chesapeake said it "anticipates reborrowing [under its revolving bank credit facility] from time to time to fund drilling and leasehold acquisition initiatives and for general corporate purposes." It seems the commodity firm is growing steadily more cavalier with its balance sheet -- CHK ended the fiscal year with just $1.75 billion in cash, compared to its December forecast of $2.5 billion.