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1. There are very few things the average person can do about derivative securities. One is to get all your money out of the big money center banks, and use smaller community banks or, better, credit unions. Another is to get out of all bonds except U.S. Treasuries, in the short to intermediate range. A third is, if you must keep money in banks, also keep enough cash on hand (in smaller bills) to live for at least three months. Remember OPSEC as you gradually accumulate this cash and store it safely, without telling anyone (or suggesting that they should do it too, which is the same thing). This will not protect against the BIG ONE, but it could help if a financial crisis is temporary.

2. Hilcorp is the epitome of the 70s Corporate Rape and Pillage mentality. Sure, their execs get paid well, but they typically undercut wages of their workers across the board. There is a good reason why they make projects profitable for them that other contractors/corporations shy away from; a total lack of ESH compliance and their nonchalant attitude towards employee interests. If you take a job with them, you will realize quickly you are nothing more than a replaceable number, expendable.

   When the oil prices nose-dived at the end of 2015, the writing was on the wall for Big Oil. Given the dilapidated condition of the facilities around Deadhorse, the corporate greed allowing the whole infrastructure to fail piecemeal as production cuts were mandated, and the relocation of the decision making process from the field back to corporate HQ in Houston, the only ones interested in scavenging what’s still functional are companies like Hilcorp. Meanwhile, the Chinese have been given the green light to explore all over the northern part of the state, via their proxy companies that were foresaken over the past few years by Big Oil.

   Make no mistake, Big Oil is not going to absorb any losses from the price downturn. That’s a big reason why the state is in such a bad way now. The Big Oil lawyers negotiated a helluva contingency for this sort of situation, allowing their clients to walk away from an unsustainable industry based on 70s tech, leaving the state and it’s residents to foot the bill. The state government then did their level best to spend as much of the now evaporated surplus budget and go into heavy debt so that only the residents would feel the pinch.

   I fully expect the govt. to default, allowing Hilcorp and China to step in and make a killing.

   But I’m not bitter…

   1. Oil prices took a dive at the end of 2014.

3. The Russians traded jets for commodities, sounds like a better deal than when just Obama gave his homeland 24 surplus F-16s in 2012, jets that the US Air national guard sorely needed.

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