For years environmental extremists have campaigned with increasing success for less investment in fossil fuels. The logic has been that as CO2-emitting sources of energy become harder to access and more expensive, the world would increasingly turn to renewables. Confronting demand for energy has generally been eschewed in favor of targeting suppliers. It’s far easier […]
Anyone who’s visited Felixstowe on England’s windy east coast knows that umbrellas enjoy a brief existence in offering protection from the rain. Farther north off the coast of Scotland, the North Sea is one of earth’s most hostile places to drill for oil. Gales are common. Working an oil rig isn’t for the nervous. Consequently, […]
Pipeline company earnings for 2Q21 were satisfyingly unremarkable, and were followed up recently with news of further givebacks to investors. Cheniere Energy implemented a dividend as part of a comprehensive long term capital allocation plan. They also plan to repay $1BN of debt annually as they target an investment grade rating. The company expects to […]
Last week the northeast US suffered 52 deaths as Hurricane Ida (by then a tropical storm) dumped up to ten inches of rain in just a few hours. Cranford, NJ on the Rahway River is prone to flooding. It’s a couple of miles from Westfield, GHQ for SL Advisors, and it seems like every decade […]
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia holds more sway than most over White House legislative strategy, because he’s one of the few willing to break ranks with Democrat orthodoxy. In his WSJ Op-Ed last week, he argued for a “strategic pause” on Congressional spending. This means his support for the White House’s proposed $3.5TN […]
In Fed chair Jay Powell’s closing speech from the virtual Jackson Hole symposium he went to great pains to illustrate that currently elevated inflation is transitory. He compared the strong rebound in spending on durable goods to above its pre-Covid trend with services spending, which remains 7% below its pre-Covid trend. He noted the unevenness […]
This week the Fed is holding their annual Jackson Hole symposium – although it will be virtual again because of the Delta variant. Media coverage has built expectations of a sharp internal debate around tapering. The recent minutes show some in favor of reducing the Fed’s bond buying program this year. Boston Fed president Eric […]
Memories of the 2013 “Taper Tantrum” loom over today’s FOMC as they engineer an exit that will hopefully be more elegant than our current one from Afghanistan. Both were well overdue, although there is no doubt the military withdrawal was handled disastrously. Can the Fed do better? Unlike the Afghan army, the bond market has […]
Paul Kennedy’s The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers coined the term “imperial overstretch”. Throughout history, the decline of every great power has coincided with military commitments beyond its means. Such cycles last many decades, and Kennedy’s 1987 book speculated that Japan was the new rising power about to overtake America. That call was […]
The most recent CPI report was a little better than expected – all-items less food and energy was up 4.3% year-on-year. Used car prices had boosted prior inflation figures but were up just 0.2% in July. Owners’ Equivalent Rent (OER), the statistician’s’ quixotic means of measuring what it costs to attain shelter through home ownership, […]
