Investing

[gehringer_2]

43 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Oh look DOJ is dropping their investigation of Powell.  I guess our markets are free of government influence now.  

good for Tom Tillis

[Deleterious]

Wednesday could be fun. 

2:30PM is the FOMC rate change announcement. 

Then after the bell Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta all report earnings.

[Deleterious]

They were a member for 59 years

 

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, Deleterious said:

They were a member for 59 years

 

This is about getting out of production quotas.

At some point I suppose we may start seeing a race to the bottom by oil producers who  see the end of an oil based economy staring them in the face and are deciding better to cash out now than try to keep the price high and see the market shrink even faster. I tend to think that when countries look out and see the US, the supposed guarantor of stability being the one screwing up the oil markets, it's sort of the last straw in the decision matrix to just get off oil as fast as possible. Nuclear is coming back, renewables are the vast majority of new utility capacity going in around the world, and the Chinese are ready and able to supply the world with cheap EVs. 

Now that said, a pipeline or three built to get around Hormuz and Trump off the stage, the pendulum may swing back, but for now, other than the US, the developed world is heading for the exits on oil & gas as fast as they can. And even here, Trump may keep the odd coal plant running here and there, but utilities are voting in the other direction with their investment dollars anyway.

Edited April 28 by gehringer_2

[Screwball]

Somebody's delusional, or reading too much green BS.

[gehringer_2]

21 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Somebody's delusional, or reading too much green BS.

What looks true here is the illusion. The US aint the world anymore - we are making ourselves irrelevant. The world is moving on, even if we aren't. More than 50% of new cars sold in China are EVs, 98% in Norway, 75% in freaking Nepal of all places. The EU and China together are much more of the real world than we are. And even here, gasoline consumption peaked in 2018.

Edited April 28 by gehringer_2

[Hongbit]

[Hongbit]

Im sorry but it’s impossible to separate politics from the investing thread anymore since that’s cause for all economic movement at the moment.  

[gehringer_2]

12 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

That 'arrogant ass' being another great character portrayal by Stellan Skarsgard, BTW.

[Hongbit]

39 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

What looks true here is the illusion. The US aint the world anymore - we are making ourselves irrelevant. The world is moving on, even if we aren't. More than 50% of new cars sold in China are EVs, 98% in Norway, 75% in freaking Nepal of all places. The EU and China together are much more of the real world than we are. And even here, gasoline consumption peaked in 2018.

Those countries don’t have a corrupt government that has been bought off by the Oil & Gas Industry.  

[Screwball]

Gas prices were this high in 2022 due to the Russia/Ukraine conflict (the chart porn proves it) and the BlueMAGA cult members just put Ukrainian flags in their yard and cheered. How's that for politics?

The country is a ****ing mess, has been a ****ing mess, and will continue to be a ****ing mess, and well over half the population has their heads stuffed up their ass and think electing ANY of these worthless pukes will fix the ****ing mess. 

How's that for politics since we have to go there?

[Hongbit]

I was talking about the EV piece.  The rest of the world has stayed on that path as a future technology.  We have moved almost completely off it for 100% political reasons. 

[Deleterious]

 

[ewsieg]

On 4/28/2026 at 4:11 PM, Hongbit said:

I was talking about the EV piece.  The rest of the world has stayed on that path as a future technology.  We have moved almost completely off it for 100% political reasons. 

So, I hate that we have, for the most part, moved away from this path.

That said, it was not 100% for political reasons.  Car companies didn't want to be left behind and it got to the point where they were expecting growth that our infrastructure could not support.  You could argue there was political reasons that kept them pursuing even when it was clear the growth they claimed they would have with EVs clearly couldn't be supported.   Some companies like Toyota were worried about that early and focused more on hybrid growth as a logical next step.  Now add in the AI bubble and there is even more constraint expected for our energy grid.  

But yes, it would have been nice to have a thoughtful administration that understood nuance and wasn't all 'clean energy BAD!'

[CMRivdogs]

 

[Deleterious]

Good. 

The government blocked the merger with Jet Blue.  Maybe that would have provided a path forward for Spirit.  But blocking that then bailing them out would have been awful.

 

[Deleterious]

He had another funny tweet.  Something like, the worst part of Spirit shutting down is now having to share a plane with Spirit customers.

 

[Screwball]

Spirit Airlines reminds me of my stock market mentor I met back around the dot-com bubble. Canadian who graduated from Queen's U, came to the states with a wife, two kids, a car, and 400 bucks.

He got a great job for Pfizer (PFE ticker) in their minerals division. Traveled all over the world. Ended up a multi-millionaire. Job, stocks, real estate, you name it. He was also the biggest cheap ass on planet earth. 

He had a home in NW Ohio, and one in Key Largo FL. He had a deal with Spirit. Went back and forth all the time. Tickets would be less than a 100 bucks. Him and his girlfriend would load up with the little ounce bottles of liquor and hide them on their body and pour them in their drinks so they didn't have pay on the plane. This was of course, quite a few years ago.

We took a trip to the Amish country in Ohio and lunch was the samples at the cheese factory. While driving his motor home. Cost money to eat at a restaurant. Too funny.

[oblong]

I'm going to miss all the TikTok videos of spirit customers in the airport terminals fighting and arguing with the poor gate agents.... especially those who complain that that they can't get on the plane that is leaving at 7:45 when they got to the airport at 7:40.

 

 

[Deleterious]

Yikes

SpaceX IPO gives Musk sweeping power and curbs shareholder rights

Quote

NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) - SpaceX has adopted corporate governance policies that will erode typical shareholder protections in unprecedented ways, giving founder Elon Musk virtually unchecked executive authority when the rocket maker goes public later this year.

Excerpts of SpaceX's IPO registration statement reviewed by Reuters show the company is combining supervoting shares, mandatory arbitration, stricter rules on shareholder proposals and Texas corporate law to give Musk and other insiders broad control. At the same time, it sharply limits investors' ability to challenge management, sue in court and force votes on governance issues.

And the only person who can fire Musk is ‌Musk, who will retain majority control through supervoting shares.

 

“It closes the voting door, the courthouse door and the proposal door simultaneously. It’s unprecedented in terms of creating a total lack of accountability,” said Bruce Herbert, CEO of Seattle-based sustainability-focused wealth management firm Newground Social Investment, which challenged Musk at his electric-vehicle company, Tesla opens new tab, with a shareholder proposal that won 49% of the vote in November.