Just think we were down 16 cents on hotdogs costs in July. 

 

 

37 minutes ago, mikemack8 said:

Was San Fran the city that announced they weren't going to prosecute shoplifters anymore?  Who could have seen this coming  

 

Yep, it sure was. With ideas like this, I'm not sure stupidity is even a valid excuse. I mean, I get that their supporters are all brainwashed cultists, but you have to assume the people making these decisions are smart enough to realize how horribly they'll turn out. There really has to be something more sinister behind the ideas. 

27 minutes ago, Kz! said:

 

Yep, it sure was. With ideas like this, I'm not sure stupidity is even a valid excuse. I mean  I get that their supporters are all brainwashed cultists, but you have to assume the people making these decisions are smart enough to realize how horribly they'll turn out. There really has to be something more sinister behind the ideas. 

 

Sure, a leaking pipeline is poisoning the California coast.

 

Sure the Keystone pipeline also had spill issues.

Quote

The GAO study showed that the U.S. stretches of TC Energy’s 2,700-mile Keystone pipeline had a failure rate in line with the national average during its first six years of service, with most of Keystone’s 22 accidents from 2010 through 2020 releasing fewer than 50 barrels of oil.

But two major spills in 2017 and 2019 that dumped nearly 12,000 barrels of oil combined "put TC Energy worse than the nationwide average over the past five years” up to 2020. The 2017 accident in South Dakota was caused by faulty pipeline materials and bad construction of the pipeline, while the 2019 North Dakota accident was caused by defects in the original pipe manufacturing, according to inspections cited in the GAO study.

https://boldnebraska.org/keystone-pipeline-spill-history/

I get a kick out of people driving $60,000 pick up trucks griping about paying over three dollars a gallon in gas. How about trying to be less poor?

 

 

1 hour ago, Kz! said:

 

Yep, it sure was. With ideas like this, I'm not sure stupidity is even a valid excuse. I mean, I get that their supporters are all brainwashed cultists, but you have to assume the people making these decisions are smart enough to realize how horribly they'll turn out. There really has to be something more sinister behind the ideas. 

You shouldn't assume that. They are genuinely that stupid.

43 minutes ago, Kz! said:

 

It's amazing that nobody actually talks about the real reason for rising energy prices. It isn't OPEC, it isn't inflation, it isn't Biden...it's ESG investing. 

ESG stands for environmental, social and government, but it really means environmental and no fossil fuels. The massive push for ESG investing is changing the way massive asset managers (e.g., mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, etc.) allocate capital. Right now it is IMPOSSIBLE for a coal company to get financing, and oil and gas exploration companies are feeling the pinch as well. So as demand rises from the world re-opening, producers can't expand production because they can't access the capital markets for financing. 

So why are gas prices so high? Because of woke millennial BS. Managers take ESG pledges in order to get investments from large allocators like public pension funds, and all those funds demand ESG compliance because idiots force it on them. 

33 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

I get a kick out of people driving $60,000 pick up trucks griping about paying over three dollars a gallon in gas. How about trying to be less poor?

Lol my sister in law has a huge F250. She has been complaining nonstop. 

 

The part that's really funny to me is she has never once even took the cover off the bed to use it. In two years not a single object has been in the truck bed and not a single thing  heavier than an average person has been in truck. 

part of the trouble with inflation is that once the inflation fears set in with the public it can become self-fulfilling. 

also not noted much is that part of what is causing price inflation is wage growth. 

 

Those who are in the employment market are feeling bullish about their financial situation, and so demand for goods and services is staying high even as supply is still having issues getting righted from the COVID downturn.

The job market is weird right now. Those who are working are seeing their income rise relatively quickly by historic standards. But a lot of people are just deciding they don't want to work at all and exiting the workforce. Resignations are relatively high at the moment. 

I still see inflation as being an episodic short term thing. There are real things happening in the marketplace causing price inflation, and those things will in time be worked out. So long-term inflation should normalize. 

That's just my layman's take though.

6 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

It's amazing that nobody actually talks about the real reason for rising energy prices. It isn't OPEC, it isn't inflation, it isn't Biden...it's ESG investing. 

ESG stands for environmental, social and government, but it really means environmental and no fossil fuels. The massive push for ESG investing is changing the way massive asset managers (e.g., mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, etc.) allocate capital. Right now it is IMPOSSIBLE for a coal company to get financing, and oil and gas exploration companies are feeling the pinch as well. So as demand rises from the world re-opening, producers can't expand production because they can't access the capital markets for financing. 

So why are gas prices so high? Because of woke millennial BS. Managers take ESG pledges in order to get investments from large allocators like public pension funds, and all those funds demand ESG compliance because idiots force it on them. 

This may be true, but I would think the inflationary effects of this are longer term. In the near term the explanation to me seems simpler: during COVID refineries were shut down. Some were taken offline permanently. So while demand is normalizing for gas the refinement capacity is lower. I could be wrong but I don't believe the issue is access to crude, but limited bandwidth for refining.

There absolutely IS a policy & regulation issue with building of new refineries. We need to expand capacity, but there are some regulatory roadblock

1 minute ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

This may be true, but I would think the inflationary effects of this are longer term. In the near term the explanation to me seems simpler: during COVID refineries were shut down. Some were taken offline permanently. So while demand is normalizing for gas the refinement capacity is lower. I could be wrong but I don't believe the issue is access to crude, but limited bandwidth for refining.

There absolutely IS a policy & regulation issue with building of new refineries. We need to expand capacity, but there are some regulatory roadblock

It's both. We need more crude, and refineries need to come back. 

One guess why refineries can't access the capital needed.

3 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

It's both. We need more crude, and refineries need to come back. 

One guess why refineries can't access the capital needed.

Yeah that's a problem we need to address. We do need to transition off fossil fuels, but we still need to bridge our way to a post-carbon energy industry and that's going to take time. 

Oh you mean we shouldn't have handed out stimulus money like candy last year and this year? Maybe restarting QE instead of letting some people feel the pinch could've had some unintended consequences? Golly gee whiz, who could've imagined this.

Vikas, c’mon, that’s the lamest excuse I’ve heard for high gas prices yet.

46 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

part of the trouble with inflation is that once the inflation fears set in with the public it can become self-fulfilling. 

also not noted much is that part of what is causing price inflation is wage growth. 

 

Those who are in the employment market are feeling bullish about their financial situation, and so demand for goods and services is staying high even as supply is still having issues getting righted from the COVID downturn.

The job market is weird right now. Those who are working are seeing their income rise relatively quickly by historic standards. But a lot of people are just deciding they don't want to work at all and exiting the workforce. Resignations are relatively high at the moment. 

I still see inflation as being an episodic short term thing. There are real things happening in the marketplace causing price inflation, and those things will in time be worked out. So long-term inflation should normalize. 

That's just my layman's take though.

You should consider closing every post with this line. 

28 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

Vikas, c’mon, that’s the lamest excuse I’ve heard for high gas prices yet.

It is 100% reality, and everyone in the financing markets knows it. Supply can't respond to increased demand. 

I know basic economics is beyond the liberal mind's comprehension, but more demand and limited supply = higher prices. Just trust me on it.

1 hour ago, Dave Moss said:

I get a kick out of people driving $60,000 pick up trucks griping about paying over three dollars a gallon in gas. How about trying to be less poor?

I know someone that has 4 kids so she and her husband both drove big SUVs with third row seats so they could haul the entire family (one was an expedition and I think the other was the big Toyota but not 100% sure). Her husband got laid off in the beginning of COVID and finally got a full time job but it is over 50 miles from their house. Since their kids are older, they traded one of the suvs in on a base model Tesla and are saving money on the monthly payment compared to what he was spending on gas. And that doesn’t factor in the reduced maintenance costs or savings from using the Tesla for all of their local errands since their kids are older and they hardly ever travel as an entire family anymore. 

39 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

It is 100% reality, and everyone in the financing markets knows it. Supply can't respond to increased demand. 

I know basic economics is beyond the liberal mind's comprehension, but more demand and limited supply = higher prices. Just trust me on it.

I was just laughing that you blamed millennials 

4 minutes ago, Dave Moss said:

I was just laughing that you blamed millennials 

I mean, the more millennials join the workforce, the more traction the ESG push gets. This comes from large pension funds like Calpers, who force it on mutual funds, hedge funds, fund of funds, etc. If you are raising capital now, you have to have an ESG policy. That is being pushed by younger people.  

1 minute ago, vikas83 said:

I mean, the more millennials join the workforce, the more traction the ESG push gets. This comes from large pension funds like Calpers, who force it on mutual funds, hedge funds, fund of funds, etc. If you are raising capital now, you have to have an ESG policy. That is being pushed by younger people.  

The youngest millenials by any metric are like 25 years old.  Pretty sure most of them have joined the workforce unless they’re pursuing a terminal degree.

1 minute ago, Dave Moss said:

The youngest millenials by any metric are like 25 years old.  Pretty sure most of them have joined the workforce unless they’re pursuing a terminal degree.

They are now older and getting into more influential positions.

Have you tried being less dense? Might help.

58 minutes ago, Kz! said:

You should consider closing every post with this line. 

10 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

I mean, the more millennials join the workforce, the more traction the ESG push gets. This comes from large pension funds like Calpers, who force it on mutual funds, hedge funds, fund of funds, etc. If you are raising capital now, you have to have an ESG policy. That is being pushed by younger people.  

I think there might be some familiarity bias at work here. You work in investment, and that may be exaggerating the effect of the ESG policy on gas prices in your mental calculus.