"Life is very good in happy downtown Houston," says John E. Olson, managing partner for Houston-based Pool Capital Partners LLC. oil prices have gone from $60 to $113 in the past seven months and gas is trading at more than $9.

"Meanwhile, 1,500 miles away, up in New York City, we've had a financial earthquake of rather staggering proportions. It's about a 10 on the Richter scale," he told Houston Producers' Forum members at a recent meeting.

Comparing overly high valuations in the mortgage market to the energy industry, Olson cautioned investors that aggressive evaluations, fancy resource reserves projections and sophisticated accounting schemes that sank some companies in prior years ...