Cartoon Of the Week

Trump continues to tweet down the price of crude oil in America whenever he can squeeze it into his busy tweeting schedule. Oblivious to the real cost of extracting America's shale oil resources he continues to want to use America's light tight oil as a foreign policy tool and likes to engage in threats of hydrocarbon "isolationism," as though America will now never need crude oil imports again.

The average price of WTI over the past decade has been $77 and some change. Yet the shale oil industry has NEVER been able to make a consistent quarter to quarter, much less year to year, profit. It is deeply in debt and unable to get out of that debt due, in part, to the price volatility it brings on itself with over-leveraged oversupply. It continues to outspend revenue each year, regardless of price. At $77 if you can't get out of debt required to "start" your business and generate sufficient net cash flow to grow production on your own financial feet, after 10 years, you need to get out of the oil business immediately and start day-trading stocks, or selling sneakers at the mall. The oil business is NOT your calling.

Mr. Trump's answer to the the lack of profitability in the shale oil industry is to rail on the FED to keep interest rates low so America, and the shale oil industry, can get even deeper in debt. He is, after all, the self proclaimed, King of Debt. Look for oil prices to keep yo-yo'ing for a while.