Jerry 'Jackpot': Unfortunate Part Of 'Cashing In' On Weather Crisis

Investors in a much-needed product are making money as a result of the demand for the product. The list of investors includes Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

FRISCO - This week, as many as seven million Texans are suffering because of power and water shortages, the result of the historic winter weather being experienced here. The demand for fuel has obviously led to an increase in natural gas prices.

Investors in that product - again, obviously - are making money as a result of the demand for the product. The list of investors includes Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

And along comes the phrasing: Jones, who owns a Frisco-based natural gas producer, is "cashing in'' on a surge in prices for the fuel.

“This week is like hitting the jackpot with some of these incredible prices,” Comstock CFO, Roland Burns said on an earnings call Wednesday, via Bloomberg. “Frankly, we were able to sell at super-premium prices for a material amount of production.”

"Cashing in.''

"Jackpot.''

Unfortunate.

The picture created by the misfortune of many and the literal fortune for few is straight out of Charles Dickens. Burns' use of the word "jackpot'' is literally true as it regards simply the cold, hard impersonal truth of investing; if you invest in corn, or rubber, or paper, and the demand for corn or rubber or paper rises ... you make money.

Does that mean you, the investor, are Ebenezer Scrooge? Or Marie Antoinette?

Burns' use of the word "jackpot'' is of course insensitive to the millions of Texans who are at this moment suffering in ways that have nothing to do with high finance.

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Yes, the rich get richer. Yes, the Jones family should get involved in community leadership when it comes to Texas rescuing itself from this Hurricane Harvey-like crisis.

And the Jones family - which once donated $1 million to Hurricane Harvey relief - will likely do just that. Because Jerry knows that a financial "jackpot'' is a sidebar story, and that the suffering of Texans is the real headline.

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