DO I HEAR AN ECHO? Presto Pundit has been following the K-Mart and Sears merger. Scroll down for more. This quote from the Chicago Tribune illustrates why some business journalists make the big bucks.

"You put a bad heart and a bad liver together, and you don't get a healthy body."

My phrasing was somewhat more pedantic.

Even the dullest least motivated among them quickly grasp that the resulting company is simply a larger collection of dinky plants.

On the other hand, some business gurus just speak badly. Negative synergies? Why not just call it "incompatibility?" Long before there were Red States and Blue States, there was Red Team (The Pennsylvania Railroad) and Green Team (New York Central.) Different operating styles, different traffic bases, different college degrees, different churches, about the only thing they could agree on was getting rid of passenger trains. Didn't have to say "negative synergies" to explain that.