NOTE: Pickens was an opponent of non-Alternative energy for many years, prior to his recent conversion. He also was the primary funder of the Swift Boat Veterans political smear campaign.
T. Boone Pickens wants to use our resources in America to end our dependence on foreign oil.
"My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil." —John Paul Getty
Consumer Credit outstanding fell $14.8b in Sept seasonally adjusted, almost $5b more than expected and marks the 11th month in the past 12 of declines. At $2.456T outstanding, it is 4.9% below the record high in July '08. After a flat reading in Aug, (didn't fall b/c of the CARS program), non revolving debt outstanding fell by $4.9B. Revolving (mostly credit cards) balances outstanding fell by $9.9B. To fully put into perspective today's data, look at the current level of consumer credit (doesn't include mortgages, the biggest chunk of consumer credit) relative to GDP. As of Q3, it totaled 17.2%...
read more »
November 15th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
It takes someone like TBP to lead this country towards alternatives to our petroleum dependance. Maybe his alternatives won’t be the right solution; but at least he is taking a position and providing some leadership to develop something. Nobody else is because of the Bush administration’s petroleum focus. Maybe his push will bring out other developers, because they are afraid his will be there ahead of their ideas and get a jump on investments.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
The Swift Boat Veterans political smear campaign? Hard to parse that one, Barry. It was the 250 Swift Boat veterans who were smeared.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
T Boone always seems to me like a guy who has some beads to sell.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
“It takes someone like TBP to lead this country. . . .”
TBP…. “The Big Picture”, or Mr. Pickens?
November 16th, 2008 at 8:36 am
T. Boone Pickens lost $400 million on this little endeavor, in this year alone. Nice blurb in BusinessWeek about it last week. He has suspended his plan to pipe water from West Texas to Dallas, ended his wind farms project and closed one of his hedge funds. So if that’s how he intends to lead this country to energy independence, I seriously doubt it will go anywhere.
The only way to lessen our dependence on foreign oil is to drill more of our own reserves. Period.
November 16th, 2008 at 9:34 am
TBP didn’t end his wind farms project it’s just slower building still planned for 2010. Teh hedge fund in 100% cash comment is correct.
November 16th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Some leadership. His California Prop 10 initiative was properly defeated.
And there’s no problem at all “parsing” Pickens funding of the Swift Boaters, Fredex. Those veterans who joined him in that disgraceful smear dishonored their service and their country. But then again, I guess you’re also among those 20% who think Bushie has been doing a “heckuva job”.
November 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Isn’t Pickens offering a large monetary prize for debunking the Swift Boat ads? Easy money in a recession? As far as I’m concerned, what happens in Vietnam stays in Vietnam: I haven’t taken the time (nor will I) to sift through all the evidence, but I bet you haven’t either. Repeating the word ’smear’ a thousand times (on the basis of what? The New York Times’ “independent” research) isn’t very convincing–particularly when Kerry’s story about Cambodia is so obviously shaky. Don’t claim it if you can’t back it up.
November 16th, 2008 at 11:58 am
TBP is always just talking his book, similar to Bill Gross. It is always interesting to see what they have to say but you always have to keep that in mind.
November 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
“T Boone always seems to me like a guy who has some beads to sell.”
I get that too. I am not comfortable with him as any kind of leader. But I am a big proponent of any viable alternative energy to oil. Electric cars has to be the way to go at some point.
“The only way to lessen our dependence on foreign oil is to drill more of our own reserves. Period.”
Sure in ten years, for the three months that those reserves would last, we could be independent. If you do not attack the demand side of our dependence on foreign oil, the U.S. will all be at the mercy of the Saudis.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
With a White House full of draft dodgers, it’s certainly curious how the Swift Boat story resonated so much with Bush voters. Nevertheless, I actually “trust” Pickens to not be a BS artist. I signed up at pickensplan.org within 5 minutes of seeing his ad on TV a few months ago. The more people who do, the more political power he gains to push his plan.
And it’s the most important thing we should be doing. We should not prop up failed automakers and failed banks. We should do something far more important:
- Save our atmosphere.
- Regain our independence. (Sever our dependency on foreign supplies.)
- Reduce our incentive to prop up dictatorships in the name of our own comfy lifestyle.
I don’t care if someone’s “talking their book” if the book content contains a righteous message. I can’t see anyone not supporting the “Pickens-Gore” plan. (My “pet name” for it, because Gore deserves credit for pushing wind energy even if his name isn’t on the plan. Kinda like how “Linux” should be called “GNU/Linux” or “Stallman-Linux”…)
Everybody, please sign up. It takes all of 3 minutes. (pickensplan.org)