Newsroom

Chevron is currently experimenting with new technology to extract more oil from its oldest fields, some of which have been in decline since the 1970s. Well, it’s not exactly new technology – it’s steam. The heat of steam injected into the old fields, which still hold as much as fifty percent of their original oil deposits, loosens and liquefies oil trapped in rock and shale for easier extraction. The company uses new, very sensitive electronic sensors to control where and how much steam is used.

Imagine you’ve invited a 900-pound gorilla to an elegant tea party. He arrives in his finest clothes, carrying a pink box of fresh cupcakes, to the great pleasure of all of your guests. Then, foolishly, you seat him next to your friend, the famous big game poacher. Should it surprise you when the nervous gorilla rearranges your furniture – and walls – to protect himself from the poacher?

No, that metaphor doesn’t quite get it. Try this one: Having borrowed money from a nervous, 900-pound gorilla, would you consider it wise to repay the debt in Monopoly money?

News media report that the Federal Reserve is preparing sweeping rules to govern pay at banks across the country. According to The New York Times, “the rules would apply not just to the pay and bonuses of top executives but also to traders, loan officers and other employees.”

Recently, we came across this impressive quotation:

An article by Mark W. Davis in the May 7, 2009 US News & World Report opined that today’s economy bears a closer resemblance to the Long Depression than the Great Depression. The Long Depression began with the Panic of 1873 “and saw an alternation between recovery and collapse that lasted to the threshold of the 20th century.”

Business and management blogs are buzzing over Netflix’s (NasdaqGS: NFLX) fascinating Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture.

The provocative ideas shared in the 128-slide presentation explain the company’s values and management ethos, and also show that the company’s leadership has thought long and hard about culture as a key success factor. Bravo!

What’s in a name? Sometimes there’s hidden value. The name Clorox (NYSE: CLX) immediately suggests bleach, thanks to decades of consistent branding. Bleach is a powerful cleaner and disinfectant, but the word also carries connotations of danger, because bleach is a powerful caustic chemical mixture. Environmentalists exhibit a knee-jerk antagonism toward Clorox, even as tens of millions of households and thousands of hospitals depend on the company’s namesake product.

The standout exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair belonged to none other than General Motors. Called Futurama, the display took visitors on a tour through an incredibly detailed – and mostly accurate – model of the continental United States as it would appear in the far-off future of 1960. Considering that the World’s Fair took place after ten years of Depression and while Europe was descending into the madness of war, General Motors’ imaginative optimism seems all the more impressive.

Americans long familiar with famous billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett may have learned a new name in recent years, as a Mexican gentleman of Lebanese ancestry jockeyed with Gates and Buffett for the title of “World’s Richest Person,” boasting a 2007 estimated fortune of $68 billion.

Every day, the press explains – in real time – exactly why the stock market is doing what it is doing.:

“Jobs Data Spooks Street!” “Earnings News Buoys Wall Street” “Profit Taking Slams Market” “Market Rallies on Unicorn Sighting”

We made up that last one, but we think it’s just as useful as the rest. The daily headlines – and the numerous “experts” interviewed in the stories – mislead investors by propagating the illusion that rational explanations exist for everything that happens in the market.