If CEOs were treated like stocks, someone might halt trading in Steve Ballmer .... Andrew Ross Sorkin spent some time chatting up the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) chief’s fellow CEO and exceutives at Sun Valley and came away with something missing until now—empathy for Jerry Yang—plus a heavy dose of disbelief at Ballmer’s Batman-Robin routine with Carl Icahn. (No, I don’t know which is which.)

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Google’s (NSDQ: GOOG) Eric Schmidt couldn’t resist (although maybe he should have): “Microsoft has a long history of having deals that look quite good and end up looking not so good when you look at the fine print.” At least Schmidt’s comments are attached to his name. It’s easy to take potshots when you can be an anonymous media executive—“If Microsoft called to buy your company, would you call them back?”—or a technology CEO—“At this point, it’s embarrassing ... Ballmer should either buy the company or forget it.” That last was “whispered just out of earshot of Bill Gates.” One “invitee” asked. “What global company in their right mind formally teams up with Mr. Icahn?”

Then there’s Yang overlooking the duck pond and asking Sorkin about Icahn, “Do you let the fox in the henhouse?”. ... We’ve had rational conversations….He said to me, ‘I like you, but I have to get rid of you.” As for Yang’s contention that Microsoft has been trying to undermine Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) to set up a fire sale, writes Sorkin, “judging by Microsoft’s recent actions, it is becoming harder to argue with him.”