The New Oil Barons network is a wild new type of investment opportunity based on a number of established wealth building techniques, some of them starchy and dignified like the secretive 'old boys networks'; others broader in scope, such as automobile associations, farmers co-ops, and mutual funds; and finally, the newer, more explosive MLM and Network Marketing plans.

While all of these groups work well for those with a little extra money and/or 'the gift of the gab', they are not accessible to the bulk of population who really need some way of improving their lifestyles, but can barely afford to buy shoes or feed their children.

So when oil prices unexpectedly dropped from their 2014 high of one hundred and ten dollars a barrel down to thirty, Cal Smith devised a scheme to take advantage of it. It had to be something that could bring in a lot of money fast to make a substantial investment before oil prices start to climb again.

Cal's father was named Herman, so it was only natural for him to create a program that emulates Hermes, the Greek God of Commerce and Deal-making; able to move swiftly between the world of man and the world of Gods: a protector of travelers, thieves and athletes, who occasionally tricked the other gods for his own amusement or in an effort to protect the people.

Hermes is the New Oil Barons and the deal is that the people pool a small amount (five dollars) of their meager resources to build a fund large enough to buy oil from the Gods now, and sell it back to them when prices get high again. But only Hermes can work fast enough to gather the large number of five dollar bills needed to create wealth for every member in such a short time, so he enlisted the help of another God, Quasar, the God of Multiplication, who had invented the MLM system specially for Rich DeVoss and Jay Van Andel, founders of Amway.

But Amway had ignored Quasar's warning not to distort the system with deceitful pricing and mandatory member purchasing and demanded that no product or training material be sold by the New Oil Barons and that all profits of the group be distributed to members by certificates given to members for introducing the scheme to others. The deal was witnessed and would enforced by the death God Thanatos, son of Nyx, God of Night.

Thus it came to pass that Oil Certificates were created with a value of five gallons of the crudest of oil, tied tightly to OPEC prices. One certificate would issued free of any charge to every person who becomes a member and another for each new member that joins in that person's down-line five levels deep.

Quasar's calculations show that any New Barons member who brought as few as one soul per week into the New Barons group, each of whom also recruited one per week, who likewise did the same, would own 132,600 certificates in 12 months. Further calculation shows them to be worth over six hundred thousand dollars – even if oil prices were still at their current lows at that time.

Hermes, whose Godly responsibilities included guiding the souls of the dead to the underworld and the afterlife, would also be responsible for the success of new down-line members.

But the many legends attributed to Hermes (also known as Mercury by the Romans) display a dual nature, at one moment a thief and liar, at the next a sympathetic helper of those in trouble. He often serves as the muse to those who play chess; where feint and deception are often the gambits of success.

For that reason, the calculations of Quasar must be taken with a grain of salt. Not everyone can, or wants to, do the same things that another does. But Hermes defends the effectiveness of his system, saying, “if Dexter Yaeger of Amway could build a down-line of more than two and a half million soap salesmen, why can't you?”

I guess he's right. Dexter Yaeger started out selling Sears tools, Ford cars and Utica Club beer in Rome, New York where he first met Hermes. As a Rome resident, he knew the God by his Roman name 'Mercury'. Although Dexter doesn't admit to his association with Hermes, they must have been very close for Dexter to earn as much as he did – between twelve and fourteen million dollars in 2010-2011.

The fact is that one fool can do what any other fool can do, and Hermes insists that anybody can make a lot of money by becoming a member of the New Oil Barons investment group.

 
“Cal,” he told me, “this thing is so easy that anybody, even the Hindu God of Success, Lord Ganesha, can do it and make money without any effort or training. Just ask them to go to your website at http://thenewoilbarons.com and tell them I'll be their coach.”