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T. Boone Pickens Hurt by Oil's Slide
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by BigT | August 14, 2008 at 08:05 pm
201 views | 10 Recommendations | 4 comments
It's hard to feel sorry for a man who has been trying to use the government's power (along with Nancy Pelosi) to make a lot of money. So I won't feel bad for him, not one bit.
The billionaire Texas financier T Boone Pickens is suffering a costly headache from the volatile price of oil which has caused the value of investments in his hedge fund, BP Capital, to plunge.
BP Capital's commodity fund dropped in value by 34% in July according to figures obtained by the New York Post, which reported that it is nursing a drop of 10% for the year to date.
Although it did not confirm the figures, BP Capital issued a statement conceding that it was suffering.
"We notified our commodity fund investors last week that the steep decline in natural gas and oil prices has had an adverse impact on our performance."
I guess that when you live by oil you will also die by oil.
If you haven't been paying attention, Mr. Pickens has been bankrolling a massive marketing blitz to get the government to assist him on changing our nation's energy policy (HERE and HERE).
Pickens is bankrolling prime-time television commercials in the US to promote his ideas and has sought a dialogue with presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.
Pickens' investment prowess suffered another setback recently when he spent about $250m on 10m shares in Yahoo in support of an attempt by Carl Icahn to unseat the internet company's board. He sold the shares in July at a steep loss, blasting Yahoo's management as "pathetic" as Icahn's rebellion floundered.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 03:52 on August 15th, 2008
BigT, I like this story. It's good stuff. I know what you mean, Billionaires are so downtrodden
at 14:43 on August 17th, 2008
I don't mind it when people make money the old fashioned way, by earning it, but when they try to use the government to pad their pocketbook that does make me mad. Maybe Mr. Pickens is serious about what he's doing and is doing it to give America a little bit more energy independence but, to say the least, I'm skeptical.
at 11:12 on August 15th, 2008
BigT, I like this story. It's good stuff. What Pickens is selling in his commercials makes little sense and could divert the USA from taking actions leading to real energy independence. What I don't understand, though, about all of this is that he started his program of commercials for wind and natural gas BEFORE the price of oil declined. Something doesn't add up.
at 14:42 on August 17th, 2008
joellerose,
The way I see it is that the only way wind and natural gas are economically viable is if it's substitute, oil in this instances, is more expensive than wind and natural gas. Pickens was banking on the belief that oil was going to go to $200 a barrel and would stay at that level forever. Now that the price of oil is going down and the economy is slumping a little bit that means there's less of a political groundswell for alternatives to oil like wind and natural gas.
Thanks for the comment and the flag.