RE: lesson learned?Excellent post.
and the analogy is very clear. The only thing I would add is that TELUS was in the position of having a lower debt to equity ratio but purposely decided to rebalance.
In your analogy, TELUS decided to take some of the equity out of the house (in their case towes in Burnaby, Edmonton and Calgary) and agreed to make slightly higher payments (brilliant move with interest rates plummeting) and invest those dollars in businesses (Clearnet/PSInet/Williams Comm etc etc.) that could generate higher incomes than the marginal interest rates that they incurred.
Quite simply, they moved their equity to higher income potential investments.
I did the same thing 10 years ago when I took a 2nd mortgage to invest in the stock markets...I made a killing...TELUS will do the same.
ps. Keep you opinions coming, makes us rethink our positions...in this case it has afirmemed my own.