Whole Foods' John Mackey: sowing some wild oats over on Yahoo finance.

My husband usually has business news on as background noise, and yesterday morning, my ears pricked up when I heard the newspeople commenting on a less than wholesome practice that the CEO of Whole Foods was caught out on.

It seems that John Mackey, Whole Foods CEO and founder, has been anonymously commenting on a Yahoo stock market forum, plumping for Whole Foods and trashing Wild Oats (a rival "natural foods" chain). Using the  nom de Yahoo of "rahodeb", an anagram of his wife Deborah's name. Clearly he was not trying to disguise himself all that cleverly. You'd think he could at least have come up with a better anagram. Sometime like ORB HEAD or DEAR HOB.

Mackey posted for a period of some eight years. He only ceased and desisted when he lost a bet with a fellow poster.

Awareness of Mackey's online alter ego came about because not only are Whole Foods and Wild Oats rivals, Wild Oats is a takeover target for Whole Foods.

The FTC no like this deal, claiming it will create an natural natural foods monopoly for Whole Foods. Part of the FTC's suit to stop the takeover sites comments made by Mackey/rahodeb.

It's not clear that Mackey did anything illegal. He apparently didn't use insider information.

But what are we to make of "anonymous" comments that touted Whole Foods and dissed Wild Oats?

One might think that the CEO might understandably have wanted to keep Whole Foods' price up.

One might think that the CEO might understandably have wanted to keep Wild Oats' price down.

That would explain speculation on Rahodeb's part that Wild Oats might be slip-sliding in to bankruptcy. Or that it had incompetent management. Or that it's fundamentals aren't fundamentally sound.

(It does not account for the comment also attributed to Rahodeb that Mackey's hairdo was "cute." Maybe he was just channeling his wife on that one. Can't blame a guy for trying.)

Once outed, Mackey claimed that the FTC is just trying to make him look bad. (Wasn't too hard, now, was it?)

He also said [in a posting on his web site]: "I posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it. Many people post on bulletin boards using pseudonyms." He said that "I never intended any of those postings to be identified with me."

I can certainly imagine that he never intended for "those posting" to be identified with me. (And why am I now channeling Bill Clinton? I guess it all depends on the meaning of the word 'those.')

Caveat emptor to anyone who gets their stock advice on Yahoo. Sure, there's a lot of honest back-and-forth. But there are also a lot of yahoos - long boosters and short-sellers - out there trying to convince naifs to buy deer and sell sheep. Yahoo! alright.

So what has Mackey done here - legalities aside?

• He's embarrassed himself.
• He's made himself look stunningly duplicitous and untrustworthy.
• He's embarrassed his company.
• He's no doubt ticked off at least some of his shareholders.
• He's put the deal to acquire Wild Oats at greater risk.

Shouldn't he have known better? Come on, already. John Mackey is a vegan - no egg yoke or sour milk curdled his judgement. No Mad Cow disease addled this brain. Certainly, there can be no thought of a Twinkie defense. (Let's face it, most Whole Foods desserts taste more like desert. No two ways about it, carob just can't hold a bean to real chocolate.)

No, this whole episode casts a big ethical cloud over John Mackey and Whole Foods.

This is a company that worries about the worklives of chickens and pigs. That won't stock lobsters because the poor bastards might feel the pain of boiling water.

Surely, John Mackey must have had some inkling that trash-talking the competition in the name of 'rahodeb' was going to come back to haunt him like a tainted meal.