James Walter Braddock (1905-1974).
Braddock upset Max Baer in 1935 to win the World Heavyweight Boxing Title at Madison Square Garden, a few blocks from where he was born.
Before his title bout in 1935 he raised his children the best he could thru the Great Depression, working as a longshoreman and often fighting minor boxing matches for a few dollars, with hands so arthritic he could barely tolerate the pain. He broke his hand at least three times in his boxing career and briefly was forced to accept government relief, welfare, and often commented how ashamed he was to have had to resort to that. If you've never read about the Great Depression, I suggest you do; tough, difficult times. It lasted 10 years. The US oil industry saw crude oil prices in the teens for two months in 2020 and went begging for a handout.
When Braddock beat Max Baer he and his manager split a $31,00 purse. He paid his debts back and bought a home in New Jersey. Every penny the Federal government gave him in the form of welfare, he paid back. All of it. The movie was true.
In 2020 the United States government, under the auspices of the "Cares" Act, loaned the America oil and gas industry some $8B under the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP). The price of oil back then was in the low teens. It saved some jobs, lots more jobs were lost anyway; some really stinky stuff was done with these "loans," these handouts, including paying off debt, vendors, drilling more wells, even CEO compensations. Then, I think (I don't know, I kept my employees on full salary from my retirement plan), all you had to do was file a form and the loan was forgiven, entirely.
Now the price of oil is $75 a barrel. The main stream media is about ready to have a cow over how much "free cash flow" the US oil industry is making n 2021. That means that CEO compensations in 2021 will be at an all time high, count on it.
The Mexican national that mows my grass got a check from the US government for $1300 one month in 2020 and sent it back. No shit ! I asked him in broken Spanish why. He said that he is blessed to work in America and pay taxes, that he did not need to take money from anyone unless he earned it. "Es una cuestión de honor, dijo, a matter of honor, he said.
Time for the oil and gas industry to pay that PPP stuff back.
Like Braddock would have.
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