Anyone can predict what will happen next week but only a true prophet can foresee what will happen in ten years.
Paraphrasing Mark Twain
Politicians and university presidents love to make future predictions and goals. The reason is simple. They cannot be held accountable today because it is so far in the future. And many years from now no one will remember the prediction or goal and they will be out of office.
Having failed in the courts Team Biden via the EPA has issued new power plant regulations. The claim is that it will eliminate greenhouse gases and at negligible cost. But the article plainly states this will cost billions of dollars.
This is a continuation of Biden’s war on anything carbon based. Targets range from 2030 to 2042. Officials claim utility bills will only rise by 2% by 2030. Consumers in Germany which is pursuing similar goals are learning otherwise.
The plan will eliminate natural gas and coal as power plant fuels. What to use instead, peanut butter and jelly? And we hear the usual pie in the sky phrases like carbon capture. Presumably wind and solar will save the day. But wind turbines are already beaching whales and killing birds. And solar does not work in the rain or at night. Germany is now going back to coal.
The usual suspects are so called environmentalists, read autocrats cloaked in climatology. This will eliminate jobs in the energy industry, hello Texas, and threaten an already strained power grid.
The worst of it is your and my inability to vote out the bureaucrats at the EPA who are accountable to no one. And the same team plans to demand airlines pay passengers for canceled flights and or put them in hotels. How many handy hotel rooms are there when 500 flights are canceled? And where does the money come from? This will surely raise ticket prices. And of course Pothole Pete who has never run an airline is demanding this blood from the airline turnip.
Regional bank stock prices are still falling. The KRE regional bank index is down from 42 to 36 in the last week or so. PacWest has dropped from $10 to $4.70 in the last two weeks.
Energy stocks led the market rally last year, this year not so much. See the EPA discussion for a fundamental reason.
Crude oil prices jumped from the low 60s but seem stuck for now around $70-72.
A handful of tech stocks still support the market. Overall breadth continues to decline.
Be careful and take advantage of 4%+ T bill rates.
