I saw Mr. (Bob) Campbell’s article on oil prices. I thought it was rather good. The only thought I might add is that fracking companies are now exercising “capital discipline”. The first go-round companies like Chesapeake drilled a lot. sold a lot of oil and natural gas and drove their prices down a lot. The only thing they did not do was generate profits. As you might expect, this did not please their investors. This go-round, they are holding back on new drilling to prioritize profit over growth instead of growth over profit. So not getting new leased sites to drill on is not that important for them. There are plenty of places they could drill on now if they wanted to.
Also, I don’t know if you have seen Larry Summers’ numbers. He found that Obama spent $30 billion per month on stimulus while Trump spent $150 billion per month. This difference is why we are having this inflation now. I got a stimulus check I did not need. I am certain a lot of people also got checks they did not need. But if someone is stupid enough to give me free money, I am not stupid enough to send it back. All this spending is now being paid for by this inflation. I am certain you are disappointed that it was Trump doing all this spending. But he always said he loved debt. Republicans are no longer fiscal conservatives, at least when they are in office.
Yours sincerely,
Herbert Loveless, MD
