A month ago, at an investment conference in Baltimore, my colleague Eric Fry asked if I think there’s another “bubble” out there that’s going to pop. My reply was that I believe the “education” bubble is destined for doom. It’ll be just one more thing to smack down the US economy, and makes for another reason — as if we need more — to hold precious metals as portfolio protection.
[Read more...]Three Flashpoints to $220 Oil
August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
With oil sitting comfortably at $73 a barrel this morning, we cast a nervous eye toward the Middle East…where three little-noted developments are setting the stage for a return to triple-digit prices. Maybe very soon.
1) On the surface, this looks like a pretty routine Iraq story: An ambush there yesterday killed six members of a Sunni militia known as the “Awakening Councils.?
[Read more...]Nuclear Power: The King of All Energies
August 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Nuclear will give you, by far, the most energy for your money right now.
The best way to view this issue is in terms of what physicists call ‘energy density.' That is, let's measure the amount of energy stored in a given volume or mass of a certain substance or material.
Below is a table that I put together expressing the energy density of an array of materials in terms of megajoules of energy per kilogram. A megajoule – MJ – is 1 million joules, or approximately the kinetic energy of a 1-ton vehicle moving at 160 km/h (100 mph). The point is to show that if something has a high energy density, then less physical material will release the same amount of energy:
[Read more...]Going Deep
August 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Recently, I had a long talk with Ali Moshiri, President of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production Company. Mr. Moshiri has been working for Chevron for over 30 years. He's one busy man, whose responsibilities begin in the southern waters of the Gulf of Mexico and extend to the cold reaches of the southern Atlantic Ocean.
[Read more...]The Brighter Side of the BP Oil Spill
August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Yes, you can think of the BP well blowout as the end of the road if you want to – if not the end of the world. Or you can look at how this will change the energy landscape in general, and the oil industry in particular. And then you can get out in front of it, and act and invest accordingly.
[Read more...]The Namibian Oil Rush
July 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
While BP has been busy spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, many other oil companies have been busy finding oil under the waters of other gulfs, seas and oceans. In fact, Brazil's state-controlled energy giant, Petrobras (NYSE:PBR), just announced a major oil discovery in offshore Angolan waters. Water depth is about 1,500 feet. The “net pay? zone is almost 1,500 feet of oil-bearing reservoir, far below the seabed. The preliminary estimate is that there are over 500 million barrels or recoverable oil in place. That'll likely grow, as additional wells go down over time. It's always nice to strike oil.
[Read more...]Too Much Debt, Not Enough Oil
July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I just returned from the 2010 Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver, B.C. This year's theme, “Assault on Enterprise,? provided a fascinating context for a wide range of investment insights and recommendations.
According to many of this year's presenters, the assault on American enterprise is intensifying. Because the government has been overpromising, overcommitting and overspending for decades, it is hurtling toward a fiscal train wreck. The numbers have stopped adding up. Looking out, there's NO WAY that most Western governments can ever pay their ongoing obligations or pay off past debt. But that doesn't mean that governments won't try to maintain their expensive and intrusive invasion of the private sector.
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My Favorite Way to Own Silver
My favorite way to own silver is the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (NYSE:PSLV). This is a product of the Eric Sprott group, of Toronto.
Units of this trust were trading well above $20 a few months ago. But today, even after silver’s January rally, the units are trading below $15. That’s a 25% decline, which is in sync with the drop in the price of silver.
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