MORE TOIL, MORE TROUBLE.

Maple Leaf Foods has had more than its share of trouble. The takeover of that old Canadian company came following an acrimonious parting of the two McCain brothers; founders of the worlds largest froze French fry company. That’s an old story, not worth re-visiting, except to point out that family squabbles are never good for shareholders.

Maple Leaf Foods, taken over by Michael McCain has had to absorb the losses from plant closings and the Wisteria infestation. That was bad news for shareholders.

Which is where my puzzlement begins. Chairmen of companies are always eager, at annual meetings, to point out the increased profits of their company, and its reflection in higher dividends for shareholders. So running a company becomes nothing more than two things: pleasing the shareholders, and doling out large executive bonuses, bonusses often based, not on the actual progress of the company but on the value of the stock. (Stock market values are tricky. They do not necessarily follow the success of the business, but the cost-cutting and creative accounting that makes it look like you’ve had a good year.)

So, as if Michael McCain has not already has enough trouble with having to recall millions of dollars worth of product that may or may not be infected, but now he is confronted by Guy Boland, whose West Face Capital hedge fund has bought 10 percent of his company and is demanding that he stop spending and start giving. Ontario Teachers Pension Fund has been another big player and they need the dividends to keep their own guys happy. So the company is in turmoil and Michael McCain is on the spot. He may be forced to stop growing the company and making so far unfulfilled promises of better dividends. He could even lose his company!

It is part of the folly of public companies: they are pinned to the mat by shareholders who want dividends. It becomes very difficult to plan ahead properly, because those shareholders are looking for quarter-by-quarter profits. It is often impossible to take the long view: to determine, not what will happen in the next quarter, but what will happen in the next two or three or five years.

Just so you know, I depend for my market investments to pay the rent and put groceries on the table. I, like so many seniors, can’t look too far ahead. As the old joke goes: “We don’t even buy green bananas.” So if companies who want to plan long-term are looking for permission, dividend-dependent seniors are not where to look.

Because I am still “Looking Ahead” I like to take a longer view. I may not have many tomorrows, but most people will have. Nothing will so stifle the growth of real wealth than the reduction of capital by giving it to impatient investors. There are many successful companies that have not gone public simply because they don’t want to have to answer to dividend-lusting investors. On the other hand, if you have created a successful company, it is very tempting to go public. You get all your money back, take a huge profit, and still own controlling shares.

You have to go back and re-read what is gospel to conservative capitalists: Adam Smith’s ”The Wealth of Nations.” He has been made the saint of orthodox free enterprise. But it was also that same feisty Scotsman who warned against letting joint-stock companies getting too big and powerful. The Wall Street and Bay Street gang don’t remember, or never know that.

Real wealth does not come from playing financial musical chairs and betting for or against the future by buying derivatives. They may make money, but no real wealth is ever created.