Return-Path: Delivered-To: wg-psg@wg.archub.org Received: (qmail 4317 invoked from network); 25 Jul 2003 06:14:08 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mail100.store.yahoo.com) (216.136.225.204) by ip67-95-134-234.z134-95-67.customer.algx.net with SMTP; 25 Jul 2003 06:14:08 -0000 Received: from minuet.das.harvard.edu (minuet.deas.harvard.edu [140.247.50.251]) by mail100.store.yahoo.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h6P6ES5Q086827 for ; Thu, 24 Jul 2003 23:14:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from callumbkokl@mx33.nationaldebtreduction.com) Received: from gauntlet.deas.harvard.edu (gauntlet2.deas.harvard.edu [140.247.50.155]) by minuet.das.harvard.edu (8.9.1-patched/8.9.1) with ESMTP id CAA01199 for ; Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:14:12 -0400 (EDT) Received: by gauntlet.deas.harvard.edu (Postfix, from userid 112) id A7B2444CAE; Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:12:43 -0400 (EDT) Received: from gauntlet (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.deas.harvard.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 365EC44CAD for ; Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:12:42 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]) by gauntlet.deas.harvard.edu (MailMonitor for SMTP v1.2.2 ) ; Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:12:41 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mx33.nationaldebtreduction.com (unknown [64.143.184.33]) by gauntlet.deas.harvard.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4E38544CAD for ; Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:12:41 -0400 (EDT) From: "Naiser Hoshiko" To: "Paul Graham" Subject: Paul, 45 year rate lows may end - lock in 3.97% NOW Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:06:38 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_555BB_01C3524F.E8C56350" Thread-Index: AcNSik4SKdmDj0TNTaq8fPJmjTEH/Q== Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Message-Id: <20030725061241.4E38544CAD@gauntlet.deas.harvard.edu> X-Filtered-by: gauntlet X-Spam-Status: No, hits=3.0 required=10.0 tests=ACT_NOW,CALL_FREE,CLICK_BELOW,CONSOLIDATE_DEBT, DEAR_SOMEBODY,FREE_MONEY,MORTGAGE_OBFU,SPAM_PHRASE_02_03, SUPERLONG_LINE,WEB_BUGS version=2.43-_id__local.cf_v_1.4_2003_02_03_00_49_03_lars_exp__ X-Spam-Level: *** This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_555BB_01C3524F.E8C56350 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Reality was somewhat more complex. The Bush social circle in Odessa was = hardly composed of oil field roughnecks. Rather, their peer group was = composed more of the sorts of people they had known in New Haven: a = clique of well-heeled recent graduates of prestigious eastern colleges = who had been attracted to the Permian Basin in the same way that = Stanford, Hopkins, Crocker, and their ilk were attracted to San = Francisco during the gold rush. Here were Toby Hilliard, John Ashmun, = and Pomeroy Smith, all from Princeton. Earle Craig had been at Yale. = Midland thus boasted a Yale Club, and Harvard Club, and a Princeton = Club. The natives referred to this clique as "the Yalies." Also present = on the scene in Midland were J. Hugh Liedtke and William Liedkte, who = had grown up in Oklahoma, but who had attended college at Amherst in = Massachusetts. =0A= Many of these individuals had access to patrician fortues back east for = the venture capital they mobilized behind their various deals. Toby = Hilliard's full name was Harry Talbot Hilliard of Fox Chapel near = Pittsburgh, where the Mellons had their palatial residence. Earle Craig = was also hooked up to big money in the same area. The Liedkte brothers, = as we will see, had connections to the big oil money that had emerged = around Tulsa. Many of these "Yalies" also lived in the Easter Egg Row = neighborhood. A few houses away from George Bush there lived a certain = John Overbey. According to Overbey, the "people from the east and the = people from Texas or Oklahoma all seemed to have two things in common. = They all had a chance to be stockbrokers or investment bankers. And they = all wanted to learn the oil business instead." [fn 7] Overbey made his = living as a landman. Since George Bush would shortly also become a = landman, it is worth investigating what this occupation actually = entails; in doing so, we will gain a permanent insight into Bush's = character. The role of the landman in the Texas oil industry was to try = to identify properties where oil might be found, sometimes on the basis = of leaked geological information, sometimes after observing that one of = the major oil companies was drilling in the same locale. The land man = would scout the property, and then attempt to get the owner of the land = to sign away the mineral rights to the property in the form of a lease. = If the property owner were well informed about the possibility that oil = might in fact be found on his land, the price of the lease would = obviously go up, because signing away the mineral rights meant that the = income (or "royalties") from any oil that might be found would never go = to the owner of the land. A cunning landman would try to gather as much = insider information as he could and keep the rancher as much in the dark = as possible. In rural Texas in the 1940's, the role of the landman could = rather easily degenerate into that of the ruthless, money-grubbing con = artist who would try to convince an ill-informed and possibly ignorant = Texas dirt farmer who was just coming up for air after the great = depression that the chances of finding oil on his land were just about = zero, and that even a token fee for a lease on the mineral rights would = be eminently worth taking. =0A= Once the farmer or rancher had signed away his right to future oil = royalties, the landman would turn around and attempt to "broker" the = lease by selling it at an inflated price to a major oil company that = might be interested in drilling, or to some other buyer. There was a = lively market in such leases in the restaurant of the Scharbauer Hotel = in Midland, where maps of the oil fields hung on the walls and oil = leases could change hands repeatedly in the course in the course of a = single day. Sometimes, if a landman were forced to sell a lease to the = mineral rights of land where he really thought there might be oil, he = would seek to retain an override, perhaps amounting to a sixteenth or a = thirty-second of the royalties from future production. But that would = mean less cash or even no cash received now, and small-time operators = like Overbey, who had no capital resources of their own, were always = strapped for cash. Overbey was lucky if he could realize a profit of a = few hundred dollars on the sale of a lease. =0A= This form of activity clearly appealed to the mean-spirited and the = greedy, to those who enjoyed rooking their fellow man. It was one thing = for Overbey, who may have had no alternative to support his family. It = was quite another thing for George Herbert Walker Bush, a young = plutocrat out slumming. But Bush was drawn to the landman and royalty = game, so much so that he offered to raise capital back east if Overbey = would join him in a partnership. [fn 8] =0A= Overbey accepted Bush's proposition that they capitalize a company that = would trade in the vanished hopes of the ranchers and farmers of = northwest Texas. Bush and Overbey flew back east to talk with Uncle = Herbie in the oak-paneled board room of G.H. Walker & Co. in Wall = Street. According to Esquire, "Bush's partner, John Overbey, still = remembers the dizzying whirl of a money-raising trip to the East with = George and Uncle Herbie: lunch at New York's 21 Club, weekends at = Kennebunkport where a bracing Sunday dip in the Atlantic off Walker's = Point ended with a servant wrapping you in a large terry towel and = handing you a martini." [fn 9] =0A= The result of the odyssey back east was a capital of $300,000, much of = it gathered from Uncle Herbie's clients in the City of London, who were = of course delighted at the prospect of parasitizing Texas ranchers. One = of those eager to cash in was Jimmy Gammell of Edinburgh, Scotland, = whose Ivory and Sime counting house put up $50,000 from its Atlantic = Asset Trust. Gammell is today the eminence grise of the Scottish = invesment community, and he has retained a close personal relation to = Bush over the years. Mark this Gammell well; he will return to our = narrative shortly. ------=_NextPart_000_555BB_01C3524F.E8C56350 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

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