The Pomp Podcast
286: Bill Perkins on Investing in Natural Gas
- Energy market dynamics: Bill discusses the current natural gas supply-demand imbalance, forecasting that supply declines will eventually overwhelm demand destruction as rig counts remain low.
- Government intervention and bailouts: Bill strongly opposes corporate bailouts, arguing they entrench incumbents, crush competition, and widen wealth inequality instead of supporting individuals directly.
- Universal basic income as policy: Bill advocates for a poverty-level UBI floor to decouple survival from employment, potentially unlocking entrepreneurship and creativity currently suppressed by low-wage job requirements.
- Poker and investing parallels: Bill draws explicit connections between poker's bankroll management, emotional discipline, and risk assessment to commodity trading and venture capital success.
- Die With Zero philosophy: The book's central thesis is that rational people should spend resources strategically during their peak experience years rather than accumulate wealth until death.
- Bitcoin and fintech: Bill takes a pragmatic stance—ambivalent on Bitcoin's price trajectory but long Silvergate Bank as a shovel-seller servicing the cryptocurrency ecosystem.