Once in a Blue Moon

Blue moons are rare but blue moons occurring on New Year’s Eve are even rarer, happening only once every twenty eight years. Tonight, New Year’s Eve 2009 is a blue moon. It’s just one of the rarities of the past year.

2009 began in the worst recession since the Great Depression. The stock market fell, the banking industry fell, the housing market fell, consumer confidence reached a low I have never witnessed and unemployment skyrocketed.

As a geologist and person engaged in the oil and natural gas business, I kept waiting for prices to recover. Oil finally began moving upward around June but natural gas stay depressed until December. While analysts and marketers were predicting even more gloom and doom, cold weather happened.

Snow still blankets my backyard, seven days after the Christmas Eve Blizzard, the biggest single-day snowfall ever recorded in Oklahoma City. Despite global warming, this is the coldest December ever here in central Oklahoma. It reminds me of the old commercial that said “Don’t mess with Mother Nature.”

The price of oil and gas is only a microcosm of the entire economic spectrum, but it is a piece of the puzzle worth watching. Where oil and gas prices go, so does the rest of the economy. When oil prices are low, the economy is bad. At least that is my take on the situation.

Late December’s always make me melancholy – things past and events yet to unfold. This December was special, a real rarity that only occurs once in a blue moon.

Happy New Year!

Eric'sWeb

Eric'sWeb