Once upon a time there was an independent contractor working for the State of California. The contractor had a secret garage meeting with some Major Oil companies who suggested that the contractor should broadly overestimate the amount of oil in the Monterey Shale by ninety six percent.
The contractor smiled and carried out the suggestion. Suddenly there was a surge of upstart oil speculators buying up land at premium prices and drilling exploratory holes in search for the black gold. They spent and drilled themselves into bankruptcy while the Major Oil company execs sat back in their heavy leather chairs surrounded by cigar smoke, the sounds of rustling newspapers and ice cubes in glasses of Bourbon. They were counting on the hungry young oil upstarts not noticing that Major Oil was doing nothing and it worked.
The banks that loaned money to the upstarts also failed. The following year a more accurate report was filed with the State of California and Major Oil was comfortable having swatted away competitors by fabricating the existence of a large supply of oil ripe for the taking.
