↓Skip to main content

337

·2 mins
  • It’s karwa-chauth today, so apparently I need to buy a gift for the wifey.
  • Blowout:
    • Chapter 2, continued:
      • The book earlier talked about how two organizations, in corporate and government sector each, collaborated to explode nuclear bombs under the ground to help with natural gas extraction. Even Reagan, POTUS at the time, was bullish about the idea.
      • On the other hand, the matter was becoming more urgent owing to shortages or price increases in oil.
      • However, the idea and numerous other attempts by big and small players didn’t work for a long time. Eventually, someone found that slick water works well. Later, the technology was combined with another - something around horizontal drilling - that finally solved the problem. A truly revolutionary technology.
        • An interesting point the author made was that the breakthrough was similar to how innovation usually works in the oil and gas industry: brute force to cut costs.
    • In chapter 3, it switched focus back to Russia.
      • Some president who tried bringing in capitalism to the country and the breakup of the Soviet Union, but also unlawfully favored a few (called oligarchs) who became billionaires. Eventually, when he went out of power, he chose a successor - Putin - who helped him avoid criminal charges.
      • Putin was fine letting things run as is, with one condition - none of the oligarchs mess with his power.
      • One guy in particular posed a threat: he was widely successful, tried American ways in Russia, openly criticizing and going against Putin etc. One thing in particular irked Putin the most: that guy was probably going to sell 30% or so stake in his oil company to an American firm and that would have impacted Putin’s power a lot.
      • Putin, through the judicial system, brought down the guy and the state took over his company. However, there was a lot of money to be made with this new company, so the western world, which included the top 3-4 US banks (such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman etc.), turned a blind eye to the hostile takeover and financed the state-backed company.
        • This - along with Goldman’s role in the 2008 recession - shows money trumps other concerns.