Dug out of a hole

The great political economist John Stuart Mill came up with the adage that “Men do not desire merely to be rich, but to be richer than other men.”

This recalls the philosophical chestnut as to whether you’d be happier earning US$50,000 when your neighbours get $30,000, or earning $100,000 when all about you are trousering $250,000. Many would agree that it’s the relative rather than the absolute game that counts, and this may have contributed to the great gushing of schadenfreude that struck when Glencore had a wobble.

The scale of the fortunes amassed by Glencore’s top brass was revealed to the world on listing, and the numbers may have provoked a pressing urge to man the barricades among those who toil blamelessly to pay off their mortgages every month.

There are debates to be had over excessive remuneration of uninspiring executive teams, but this is a long way from what we see in Glencore’s case. There, the senior honchos are significant owners of the business, and are in no mood to see it underperform.

It is just under two years since the Cassandras were suggesting that the good ship Glencore was holed below the waterline and had an imminent appointment with Davy Jones himself. Since then the radical economic transformation of the business has been mighty to behold. The share price has come about 350% off its low, and is within a well-struck pitching wedge of its prewobble highs. The balance sheet looks healthier, and the underlying commodity portfolios look well positioned to ensure that the future is full of promise.

There is a feeling among the commentariat, and in particular in the more frothymouthed depths of the chat rooms, that heads must roll