Agree with you on JFK. I REALLY don't want to see another Clinton or Bush in the White House. If either of them wins, then we'll have had 36 of 44 years with one of those two families in the white house assuming they get two terms. America was specifically founded not to be a monarchy.

I'll admit that I don't typically comment on politics. The two parties are basically the same as far as governance is concerned (and I have numbers basically proving that Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush answer to the same lobbyists). My concern here is pointing out the opportunity that the American media will never tell you about.

Interesting. I've seen speculation elsewhere too that the departure from the gold standard was the biggest thing that caused the increasing gap between the rich and the poor that we've seen develop over the past 45 years and these charts show that quite well.

Yes, it's not talked about much in the media, but there is indeed a growing distrust of the Western nations (and the United States in particular) among the emerging world and even among the developed economies of Europe. This is immediately apparent if you check media sources from countries other than the United States.

Agreed. That is the biggest risk here. Although, the so called oil glut is pretty much just limited to the United States. The world as a whole is no more oversupplied with oil than has been the average over the past decade, per Rosneft's CEO. We have begun to see oil inventories decline in the United States, so it's uncertain what will happen at this point.

That's Seadrill... not Seadrill Partners. They are two different companies.

Seadrill Partners does not have any stake in any of the rigs you mentioned.

Finally, everybody talks about the funding commitments, but they aren't as big a worry as everyone thinks. First of all, Seadrill has already begun discussions with shipyards to postpone the delivery of newbuild rigs for a few years. This means that the company won't have to pay for them on the original schedule. Second, the CEO of DNB ASA, the largest bank in Norway, recently stated that his bank is willing to postpone installment payments for drilling companies due to the industry downturn. I expect other banks to follow suit, meaning that Seadrill won't actually have to pay that money if it runs into financial trouble (but at the moment, it can afford to carry its debt). Once again though, this is Seadrill, not Seadrill Partners. My suggestion is that it's Seadrill Partners offering the good opportunity.

As for the stock moving in sync with the price of crude... yes, it does, to a point. But the company's cash flow doesn't.

In many cases it would be true that the falling price of crude oil and by extension gasoline is a boon to the economy. However, this is not true in this case. The shale oil boom has either directly or indirectly been responsible for a very high percentage of the middle-class jobs that have been created since the end of the last recession. In fact, those states that do not have shale oil or gas fields still have, in aggregate, less jobs than they had back in 2007. The opposite is true in those states that do have shale oil or gas fields. Outside of the energy industry, the majority of the jobs created have been part-time or temporary positions.

Now with the declining price of oil, many of these jobs are in jeopardy. This is because the majority of North America's shale plays cannot be operated at today's oil prices. We have already been seeing layoffs in the oil patch as well as in supporting industries such as steel companies. As the majority of the non-shale related jobs that were created were low-wage or temporary positions, it is unlikely that these displaced workers will be able to find jobs that allow them to maintain their incomes. This is likely to cause a decrease in spending power and start to slow down the economy.

I've discussed this a few times in the past. Read these reports for a much more indepth analysis.

seekingalpha.com/.../2826556-are-commodity-trends-pointing-to-a-global-economic-slowdown

seekingalpha.com/.../2800715-why-declining-oil-prices-are-not-unequivocally-good-for-the-u-s-economy

seekingalpha.com/.../2812965-further-evidence-that-low-oil-prices-are-not-unequivocally-good-for-the-u-s-economy