BLOODBATH A Report on the Texas Oil Patch

One of the few areas that has seen downside activity in generally up trending economic data is the mining sector (which includes oil drilling).

Nick Badalamenti reports in the comments:

My business is on a marketing list distributed to many auctioneers. I get auction notifications of industrial plants, usually CNC machining oriented, going out of business. 

I've noticed a substantial uptick in auctions out of Texas the last 6 months for companies heavily associated with the oil business. It's a bloodbath for a lot of people. Lot's of dollars in capital equipment going up for sale....most of which is fairly new by the looks of the brochures.

My guess is they levered up during the oil boom and when the bottom fell out they lost everything. A lot of these guys are in their 60's too....that's pretty hard to recover from at that age.

 -RW