Author: Steven Guccione

Thousand Year Floods

Steven Guccione

There seem to be three “1000-year floods” in as many weeks here in the US. This is happening in July and early August, a time not known for heavy rainfall, especially in the places it is falling, like Death Valley. Here in Texas we are in an extreme drought. Somehow, it is humid here every day, so it is an odd sort of drought. To this amateur meteorologist it seems like southern gulf breezes push lots of moisture right past Texas, then it ends up being unleashed somewhere of the edges of the drought area.

Death Valley Experiences 1,000 Year Rain Event

St. Louis and Kentucky flooding: 2 different 1-in-1,000-year flood events in same week

Mexico: A development puzzle

Steven Guccione

When I was in college, Mexico announced it’s discovery of massive oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. At the time, I had a neighbor who happened to be a professor of Latin American studies. I asked him what he thought of this, and I offered that Mexico would be a very wealthy country soon. He disagreed. He cited one reason: corruption. I’m not sure he was correct, but Mexico’s oil wealth didn’t turn out the way I had expected. A good read on our neighbor to the south. The comments are also worth reading.

Mexico: A development puzzle

The Fracking Boondoggle

Steven Guccione

The data has been out there for a long time. Fracking was a money pit for investors. I heard $500 billion in capital lost. Everyone should read this. From the New York Times:. Hardly Anyone Talks About How Fracking Was an Extraordinary Boondoggle

From 2006 to 2014, fracking companies lost $80 billion; in 2014, with oil at $100 a barrel, a level that seemed to promise a great cash-out, they lost $20 billion. These losses were mammoth and consistent, adding up to a total that “dwarfs anything in tech/V.C. in that time frame,”