The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine this week announced that 31,072 U.S. scientists signed a petition stating that
“… There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will cause in the future, catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate…”
This includes the eminent theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson who is among the many distinguished signatories. For you Sci-Fi and Physics fans, he is the guy that came up with the Dyson Sphere! Pretty cool aye?
On a personal note, Dyson happens to be one of my few heroes.
Considering the whole ill founded and unproven Global Warming farce caused a landslide of ignorant, knee jerk legislation that is now responsible for about 20% or 75cent per gallon of the higher gas prices every time you fill up your tank and about 40% of the now higher food prices you pay every single time you buy food.
But hopefully this will soon come to an end.
But then again we are talking about Politicians actually doing the right and smart thing for us as US citizens and for the world for that matter, so I would not bet on it.
The recent veto of the disastrous Farm Bill by Bush may help a little.
From an investment standpoint you should note that while the Congress and Senate preach support of alternative fuels and support Corn Ethanol which costs $1.25 to produce $1.00 worth of Ethanol, (hey I never said it made sense) the bill also still supports the tariff ( tax you pay) on Ethanol made from Sugar Cane from Brazil (which actually does make sense and per acre is 8 times more efficient than Corn) making it more expensive.
Even so, I would hesitate to put a single dime into Corn Based Ethanol Ventures as the subsidies that make them viable may be withdrawn and this dumb idea could be plowed underground again where it should be.
My goal with this story is to open your eyes to Alternative Investment Arenas. By Arena, I am talking about other countries. However, in order to do that, you need some way to measure and compare major metrics so that we are comparing Apples to Apples and not to Bananas or Cashews.
Talking about Cashews is apropos as some of what I am going to talk about is just plain nuts in more ways than one.
In researching this story, I have discovered a somewhat startling theme here in that almost every bit of the Stupidity that we need to avoid and Smartness we need to go after for your portfolio is Political in nature.
Here are some metrics that are commonly used to look at different countries for investment potential. A good source to help you with them is The Heritage Foundation which has compiled a top 10 List, as well as a list of 160 countries for Economic Freedom.
Let me repeat that. Global Temperatures Dropped Around 1 Degree Fahrenheit in the past 12 months On All Four Major Indicators. What does this mean to your portfolio?
OK, first off I am not enthusiastic about writing this article. Why?
Because it means I have to discuss Politics and Global Warming both of which bore me and piss me off at the same time. Although I have to admit, it does provide a certain Machiavellian sort of humor. You know the kind where you are listening to someone and you know that they everything they say is a lie and you know that they know it too?
This all stems from the fact that I do not like stupid people or people that perpetuate fraud on unsuspecting people who do not know any better.
You get two for one when talking about Politicians and Global Warming….. Yippeeee.
I am not talking about people not knowing the facts out of ignorance or making honest mistakes as we all make those. Well you might not, but I know I sure do.
But on the other hand, think about it. Both Politicians and the Global Warming crowd have to lie or tell half-truths and commit fraud everyday (or be so misinformed they should not be out in public) in order to do what they do. Guess that is the part I can’t stand.
Nevertheless, I need to tell you about this as I would venture that you have not heard about it anywhere else have you? If you have heard that the overall mean temperature dropped by over 1 degree please post a comment.
If you have, you are well informed and go to the top of the class and you can skip to the bottom, for the rest of you, read on.
If you have not heard about this, do not feel bad, it is not your fault.
Most of the news media that has a vested interest in Global Warming is not going to trot this information out until they figure out how to spin this and spin this they will.
Truth be told, I do not like to go political and truly, these days my only interest in what the idiots (politicians) are doing is what affect they will have on economies and markets and our portfolios.
This includes the whole Global Warming debacle, as this is a politically motivated movement with zero basis in fact for anyone that cares to look at the data. Actually, you have to ignore the data in order to be part of the Global Warming Agenda.
Just for those of you that do not have a life and death reason to pay attention to the weather like me, (well technically I guess we all do) I am a pilot so therefore if you want live, you need to have a good understanding of weather and climatology in order to have the chance at being able to get you an your passengers to your destination.
I have been actively flying for about three decades now and got my glider permit back in the early 70‘s. So in order to do this safely, most smart pilots that I know (i.e. ones that are still alive) become very interested in weather and many have as much or more practical knowledge as many of the talking bubble head forecasters that you see reading the Teleprompters on the Telly.
That being said, here is a quick lesson for anyone that actually wants to know hard-core facts on the subject of Global Temperatures.
There are four references that are accepted and used by all climatologists and scientists with any real credentials for global temperatures.
They are the NASA Goddard Institute Number, which puts out the GISS number, The Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature Anomaly or HadCRUT, The University of Alabama, Huntsville Number or UAH, and finally the Remote Sensing Systems of Santa Rosa, CA or RSS number.
Guess what? All four of them show a significant decrease in temperatures over the last 12 months. One of them even shows a decrease of 1.8 degrees! This is a big, big number that blows away what the Global Warming Loons have been saying.
We have seen a a bigger drop Temperatures in the past 12 months than what the Kyoto Treaty was supposed to produce in the next 40 years if fully adopted and implemented at the cost of several Trillion dollars. We just got it for FREE!
What does this mean? Well it means that the theory that temperatures are related to Sun Spots and other factors such as magnetics is probably correct and the Carbon Dioxide has little if anything at all to do with Global Temperatures since it actually rose a bit last year while the temperature went down a degree. It also is the death knell of doom for the whole Global Warming Fraud Group…… Whoops…darn facts….
How Does This Affect Our Portfolios?
Well, the whole Global Warming initiative right now is costing your about 75 cents per gallon at the pump, and about 10% across the board for all of the food and everything else that you buy.
It is also helped contribute to the current 10 -11% real inflation that we are seeing right now this very minute for this year. …Ouch. The most recent Wholesale Pricing Index was up 1.1% in just the last month reported. Let us see that is 1.1 x 12 = 13.2% inflation.
The big question is will the Politicians stop the new Carbon Bills that could add another $1 dollar to the price of gas, and heating oil, and a lot more than that percentage wise to coal for something that has proven to be wrong? Oh and I forgot to add that it will probably raise the cost of everything else that you buy by another 10% within the year.
There is a lot of momentum going into keeping the Global Warming farce alive and hundreds of millions of dollars being pumped into politicians worldwide to continue it, so we will have to see.
I am almost certain you have not heard this good news about the huge temperature drop on the front page of the New York Time or on the Weather Channel, or on any other major news source. But then again that is a guess since I do not partake in them.
The Bad or Good News depending on how you look at it is that the results are from the very same sources that all of the goobers in the Global Warming movement have used in the past for the dire predictions, even if they did pick and choose which years to use to make it look really bad for you.
Therefore, it is only a matter of time before even they cannot ignore it, right? Well, I hope so at least.
What Does This Mean For Us As Intelligent Investors?
The Opportunity And The Conundrum
The kicker is that right now using domestic coal we can make a barrel of Oil for around $55. Less than half of what oil is it going for now.
Right here in the good old US of A in Montana, we can profitably make Oil from coal and sell the gas for around $1.74 per gallon.
Guess what else?
“At the present rate of consumption without finding any new sources of coal or improving the process, we have enough coal to produce synthetic Oil to totally and completely replace all of the Oil we import right now this very minute and it will last for the next 200 years.”
How is that for you?
The only reason I bring this up is to look at how the whole Global Warming phenomenon affects your portfolio.
So, unless they can figure a way to squelch the data, and even then this data cannot be ignored forever, the whole Global Warming apparatus is going to unravel.
It will take awhile as you have some very powerful and entrenched people and institutions with a vested interest in keeping the fraud going as long as possible so it won’t go away for several years in spite of the temperature drops.
Actually, I am waiting for them to jump sides and start telling us now that Carbon Dioxide is going to cause the next ice age. I am only half kidding here. They did exactly that in the 70’s.
The point is that I would be very careful investing in the whole Green phenomenon as the bottom is about ready to fall out of it and start looking at coal and Oil Shale companies or hard core practical present day solutions that can be implemented right now.
Unfortunately, the profitability of both ventures depends not on the economics of the process but on the economics of what both the Republicans and Democrats are going to do with the Carbon Bills in the house.
Both versions of the proposed bill could kill off coal and Oil Shale and cause gas to hit $5 a gallon very soon if they pass. So, we will have to wait and see what they do before we can tell if the Global Warming money that is being pumped into the politicians by the millions will end up kicking us right in the teeth.
Any bets? Thanks to Anthony Watt for the data! Keep up the good work Anthony! Here is a link to his site for anyone that wants unbiased info on weather. - AA
It is actually pretty simple. Other than doing the trades you see here, be careful who you are listening to and watch what you read.
Really, think about it. If you have a serious issue like breaking your leg, do you ask your Aunt Ethel how to fix it? How about your car mechanic? Well unless either one of them are Doctors it is probably not a good idea to take their advice. So at least now we have a good ball park on where to get advice from i.e. a Doctor. (more…)
Welcome to prices in the not too distant future here in the US. Get used to it because commodity prices have shot up dramatically recently and that is where prices are heading. I am going to show you why this is a good thing. Well, OK, not for everyone, but at least for you and I. Yes, we are going to make money from this!
All of these items have something to do with coming out of the ground and going up. Wheat has seen prices around $15.75 per bushel when only last year it was around $4 per bushel. Corn in 2006 was around $2.25 a bushel and now it is around $5.80.
Can you see why your prices for the items mentioned are going to go up?
There are actually two major factors at play.
Here are very, very simplistic answers for this and there are more factors, but here is basically what is going on.
Only about five years ago if we say the US Dollar was actually worth a Dollar, it is now worth only 50 cents. (more…)
“Overall, you can look at energy prices continuing to rise at least 10% short term and I predict we might see oil top $110, to even $120 a barrel before the year is out. ”
Well, it hit $110 today. Was I ever off on timing. How far can it go? I looked again and I have to say that we could hit $130 to $140 before demand starts to wane.
But think about it, with 70 million people being born every year, 85% of known reserves in the US being kept from being explored by the state and federal government, demand for India and China growing at a fast clip and with the epitaph for alternative fuels being written by the latest energy bill that was just signed into law, is it any wonder that the prices are going to continue to rise?
If you are an early bird like me, perhaps you caught Sir Richard Branson this morning on Squawk Box talking about Virgin Charter?
There were more than a few interesting subjects discussed. First his official launch of Virgin Charter, which is a system to fill empty legs of Private Jets. It is basically a registration system that allows companies to put passengers on an otherwise empty Jet. Some paying customers is better than paying for fuel on and empty plane as it flies back to home base after dropping off people at their destination.
Virgin Charter is finally open for business as of today. If you have never flown by private jet, it is the way to go. With airport delays these days even on a one or two hour trip you can waste the better part of a whole day just getting somewhere. You can check them out here at www.VirginCharter.com .
Whereas with a charter, you usually fly to a smaller airport that is much closer to your destination, and in many cases you can arrive only five minutes before you take off. This can literally save you a whole day’s worth of work.
Just think about this, if you have a whole day to work on what makes you money can you use that time to come up with an idea that will make you an extra $5,000 to $20,000 this year? If so, you probably just paid for your trip and then some.
If you take four or five people with you, the economics really makes sense when you add up what a whole days worth of lost production.
Branson also discussed the state of the economies around that world and the fact that he fully expects India to top 10% economic growth this year and China not to be far behind. While here in the US, we are going to be lucky to break 1%.
This should cause a great deal of concern. He rightfully points out that much of this can be contributed to governmental interference and protectionism that is going on here in the US.
He brought up the insane sugar subsidy that is causing America to pay nearly double the price for sugar as the world market, which in turn has caused us to use corn for producing ethanol which is 8 times less efficient per acre than sugar. This in turn has caused food prices to skyrocket. Have you seen what has happened to the price of a gallon of milk or a dozen eggs this year?
Talk about what I like to call the Stupidity Multiplier. 99.9% of all market malfunctions can be attributed to Government interference and the Stupidity Multiplier and he spoke about just a few more examples that are going on in the US.
He also spoke about the knee jerk protectionist restriction on foreign investments in US airlines and in other areas.
He rightfully points out that most of the US airlines are Dinosaurs that should have been extinct decades ago but continue to receive government bailouts no matter how badly they are run.
If you have ever flown on a decent foreign airline, you know how bad most of our airlines really are.
One other note, silver has topped $20 per ounce and to think that just a few short years ago it was at about half of that.
I am trying to get an interview with someone from Virgin Charter. We will see how responsive their PR people are.
With all of this in mind, knowing that the government is artificially keeping up grocery prices and oil prices here in the US is there a way that you can take advantage of this? Are they going to blame everyone and everything else and do even more harm trying to “fix” things? Could be some great plays coming up.
Overall, you can look at energy prices continuing to rise at least 10% short term and I predict we might see oil top $110, to even $120 a barrel before the year is out.
The recent veto of the disastrous Farm Bill by Bush may help a little. 
My goal with this story is to open your eyes to Alternative Investment Arenas. By Arena, I am talking about other countries. However, in order to do that, you need some way to measure and compare major metrics so that we are comparing Apples to Apples and not to Bananas or Cashews. 
= $5
In my article on 
If you are an early bird like me, perhaps you caught Sir Richard Branson this morning on Squawk Box talking about Virgin Charter?
There were more than a few interesting subjects discussed. First his official launch of Virgin Charter, which is a system to fill empty legs of Private Jets. It is basically a registration system that allows companies to put passengers on an otherwise empty Jet. Some paying customers is better than paying for fuel on and empty plane as it flies back to home base after dropping off people at their destination.
With airport delays these days even on a one or two hour trip you can waste the better part of a whole day just getting somewhere. You can check them out here at 
