High Sticking

I’m not sure if I am the only one that did not know this or not, but the obituary of Black Hawk legend Stan Mikita pointed out that he was one of the first players to pioneer the  use of a curved hockey stick. I guess I’ve got hockey sticks on the brain as I have been looking into developments in the U.S. oil shale proppant  business. As you may or may not know, oil fracking requires a tremendous amount of both water and sand, and that the amount of sand utilized at the well head has grown exponentially just over the past few years. Not surprisingly, the amount of newly financed sand production has grown as well, leading to a surplus and downward shift in sand prices. In looking at this industry, it got me thinking about how quickly  this new production was financed, most likely as a result of a  demand chart courtesy of Mr. Mikita. In fact, one can be sure that this same chart has been used of late to encourage new projects in cobalt, lithium, marijuana dispensaries, (fill in the blank) … The problem with financing the hockey stick is that inevitably one of two things occurs: substitution and or demand destruction. Beware the hockey Stick!