When I caught up with him on Thursday afternoon, after his week of testimony, he said that the problem was that institutional investors had stopped seeing energy as a commodity the world relies on and instead saw it as an "asset class" for their portfolios.
Second, and more important, the hardware represents a buy-in by customers that doesn't exist in the commodity world; you don't change vendors in the high-end Unix server world because another vendor is offering a better promotion.
"The strategy of doing the same thing with subtle differences — that's how you end up in the commodity world," he said.
But while equities tumbled, the boom-and-bust commodity world, which I consciously avoid, took off.
High-tech visions like these face daunting hurdles moving into the commodity world of energy.
"If e-tailers want to stay in the commodity world, they probably don't have to add value.
Insiemi could be a networking product that would bridge the custom and commodity worlds for Cisco.
Sure, art remains a commodity, and the world a terrifying place, but at least in this still, echoing moment, it doesn't seem beside the point to care.
Oil is a commodity, sold on a world market at a world price.
