4/21/2020

My Friend DJT,

            I wish my father, HTA, were alive today. He could give you a call and help you wrap your head around this unfathomable oil price – negative $37.63 for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate delivered in May. That’s a futures contract. Since it was about to expire not many of them were traded. The Sept contract is selling for $30/barrel so it’s not like oil will be free forever. We’ve just got way too much of it right now and no place to put it.

Puts, calls, hedges – my dad could school you in all of that. He would be shocked to read the WSJ’s statement that “Market mechanisms that might help rectify the slump appear to be breaking down because of the lack of storage space and demand for oil globally.” HTA revered markets, and would never accept the fact that they could break down. We used to argue all the time about markets and their externalities. We never changed each other’s minds but we could get worked up!

            Apparently, that is true of Maddie Graham (MG) and her dad, too. She’s a 17-year old climate warrior, who was featured in the WP today. She’s bummed that Earth Day will be virtual this year. She’s not willing to sit at home and watch the world burn, so she’s getting out there. She & her buddies held a “funeral for the future in Nov.” She finds it “weird” that as a person “trying to prevent the apocalypse,” she never thought her “work would be interrupted by an apocalypse.”

            Speaking of being interrupted by an apocalypse, that must be the way Vicki Hollub feels right now. You’ll remember she visited the WH a couple of weeks ago. Her company, Occidental Petroleum, might go belly up if this thing lasts much longer. That might make MG happy. Please Zoom with her so she can convince you that this crisis could bring the new dawn of a clean energy future. Wouldn’t that be great?

            HYITL,