My good friend Carl Icahn reiterated his view yesterday that someday soon all companies will be run by morons.  Left unsaid in his speech (or at least the press account of it) is that there is still hope.  Say what you will about activist hedge fund managers and buyout kings, nobody can dispute that we are, to our core, meritocrats.  So long as we are roaming the capital markets, the slow and weak, no matter how affable they may be, are at risk of being slaughtered and replaced with someone better, faster, stronger.  Which gets me to the point I think Icahn was trying to make: increasing taxes or regulations on alternative asset managers will kill off the predators that are essential to keeping the moron population in the C-level suites and boardrooms under control.

Anyway, that's what I think Icahn was saying in the unsaid part of the speech.  Here's Portfolio's take:

Many college kids seek refuge in their fraternities or clubs (when Icahn tells it, "sorority" is conspicuously omitted) for a friendly face. Without fail, the president of the club, who never seems to open a book, is there to cheer them up. He's a nice and friendly guy, the kind of guy you want around to make you feel better with a beer or a game of pool.

Not surprisingly, that guy goes into business. He's never the smartest guy in the room, but he's likable and he's a survivor. He moves up the corporate ladder, without a single original idea that might make his boss feel threatened by his potential.

Eventually, he gets to be the #2 guy at the company. He's a little dumber than the C.E.O., but the board likes him, so he eventually gets to be C.E.O.

Of course, he assigns a #2 who is a little dumber than he is. "And eventually, we're going to have all morons running our companies," Icahn concluded. "We might not be that far off from that right now."

And that, according to Icahn, is how your incompetent boss got the corner office.

Previously.