John Kerry finally has everything he has always wanted. As Biden’s Climate Envoy, he has behind the scenes power to punish his imagined enemies. Appointed but unelected he is beyond the read of any he chooses to punish. And married to the widow of the Heinz Food fortune, he will never have to answer to a boss nor work another day in his life. Not to mention free passage on government transcontinental jets to scold those producing carbon fuels, which of course he airplanes consume in voracious quantities.
Your Climate Envoy is busy in the following ways.
He has arm twisted the four largest commercial banks plus Goldman and Morgan to join the Net Zero Banking Alliance. The simple translation is, no loans for carbon based energy projects.
Fifteen state treasurers sent a letter protesting these efforts. Do you think lifelong politicians from Massachusetts and Delaware care what red states desire?
Later other state financial officers complained to the Banking Industry. Refusing credit to oil producers could result in loss of lucrative state contracts.
Texas passed a law forbidding state investment in banks which boycott oil and gas producers.
Exxon Mobil is facing climate obsessed shareholders demanding that climate change be the guiding issue for selecting all future directors. Expect more of this across the industry.
It might be a good idea to recall that the four big banks and additional investment banks are typically led by left leaning Ç´Os from Ivy League schools. There is nothing to stop the Climate Envoy for the next three years. Team Biden can claim it will run for re-election but realistically why not just ‘go big for climate’ knowing the chances of re-nomination at age 80 plus will be slim?
Crude oil is bouncing just over $70. Inflation is the big news with wholesale prices up over 8% since last November. The catfish platter price at a local restaurant jumped from $9.99 to $11.99, which is 20%. Yet Team Biden wants to pour more trillions into the economy, that is gasoline on the fire. Joe Biden is no LBJ. LBJ would have determined what the needed votes would support before announcing the legislation. Joe got that backwards which is why he is still ‘negotiating.’
The FED announced three interest rate hikes for 2022. The Market initially jumped 300 point s but has been stalled since. The NASD still has a mere 20% of stocks over their 50 day moving average. The NYSE advance decline line is stalled in at best a sideways pattern.
Tech stocks had a bad day Thursday. Apple dropped 3.9%, Amazon 2.6%, Tesla 5%, and Adobe 10%. The lack of breadth in the NASD is catching up with the big caps like these. This is not how the traditional Santa Claus rally gets underway.
