Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass: Buckle your seatbelts on oil prices

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• Closely watched hedge fund manager Kyle Bass said Thursday that oil prices could rise "well north of $100" in 2022 as a lack of investment in the hydrocarbon industry meets a surge in demand as the global economy emerges from COVID restrictions.
• "I think you should buckle your seatbelts," the founder and chief investment officer of Hayman Capital Management said. "We're going to see really high prices very soon."
• Bass explained that policies designed to fund the development of green energy sources have pulled capital away from oil development. As a result, the industry will not have enough capacity to keep up with demand as the COVID impact fades.
• "You can't just turn off hydrocarbons. It takes 40 or 50 years to switch fuel sources," he said.
• Looking at the broader market, Bass predicted that the Federal Reserve might not be able to raise interest rates as quickly as it needs to because doing so would trigger a massive correction in the stock market.
• "The Fed doesn't have the stomach for the market to drop. ... If the market is down 20%-25%, I think the Fed stops raising rates," he said.
• "My personal view is that I don't think they can raise short rates more than 100-125 basis points before they have to stop," he added.
• Bass also contended that the real inflation rate is actually running at 14%-15%, or even higher.
• On China, the Hayman Capital founder maintained his long-standing belief that the country's equities remain uninvestable given the structure of the economy, a lack of transparency and the Chinese government's stance toward private enterprise.
• "People who are betting on a bounce, I think that is kind of fool's game," he said. "I think people investing in Chinese equities are breaching their fiduciary duties to their investors."
• For more on Bass' view on China, see why he says the U.S. holds the "nuclear economic button" with the country.