Eddie Lampert and Sears

Isn't the difference between Eddie Lampert using Sears to extract cash to invest in other hedge-fund like opportunities and Warren Buffett using the float of his insurance companies to invest that insurance companies generating float is a sign of health whereas starving a retailer of cash is a sign of weakness (for the retailer)? Washington Post: Risky Side of Sears: Retailer Is Recast As a Hedge Fund

Or is he saying the Sears is literally Berkshire Hathaway (the dying textile mill that can't justify any ongoing reinvestment?)

Posted on March 11, 2007 and filed under Finance.