How a Big Cat Started Europe’s Addiction to Oil

Posted on May 13, 2014 by MN Gordon

How a Big Cat Started Europe’s Addiction to Oil
By Marin Katusa, Chief Energy Investment Strategist

On July 1, 1911, a German gunboat named Panther sailed into the port of Agadir, Morocco, and changed history.

For the previous two decades, a faction within the British Admiralty had called for the navy to switch from coal-fired ships to ones powered by a new fuel.  Admiral John Fisher, First Sea Lord, led the charge, trumpeting oil’s numerous advantages: It had nearly twice the thermal content of coal, required less manpower to use, allowed refueling at sea, and burned with less telltale smoke.

Doesn’t matter, replied naval tradition: Britain lacks oil, and she has lots of coal.  The switch would put the greatest navy in the world at the mercy of burgeoning oil-rich countries and the oil trusts that operate in them. (It didn’t help that the navy’s first test of oil-firing in 1903 engulfed the ship in a cloud of black smoke.)

It wasn’t common knowledge at the time, but Germany had surpassed the mighty British Empire in manufacturing in the late 1800s, most notably in the production of steel. Continue reading →

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Wealth Building for Pigs

Posted on May 9, 2014 by MN Gordon

Today we close our eyes, tilt back our head, and breathe deeply.  Not only do we breathe in oxygen…we breathe in something more: Perspective.

We’ve never gutted a hog around here.  But, from what we gather, it’s a bloody mess.  Nonetheless, starring at and contemplating a ham and egg breakfast plate we find a thorough lesson on commitment.

You may’ve heard this little allegory before.  When it comes to a ham and egg breakfast, the chicken’s involved in providing for the breakfast.  It provides the eggs.  But the pig’s fully committed to it.  The pig must perish to provide the ham.

Naturally, this extended metaphor offers many rich insights.  For most endeavors there are chickens who are involved and pigs who are fully committed.  To a large extent, whether we like it or not, when it comes to schlepping and scratching for wealth, we must be pigs. Continue reading →

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Treadmill Economics

Posted on May 6, 2014 by MN Gordon

A day hardly goes by that doesn’t offer the unexpected.  Just when we thought the economy was rolling over to take a big fall something remarkable happened…

“Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 288,000, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3 percent in April,” reported the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday.  “Employment gains were widespread, led by job growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services and drinking places, and construction.”

The unemployment rate hasn’t been this low in over five years.  On top of that, the number of new jobs created in April is the largest monthly increase since February 2012.  Is it time to pop the champagne corks and celebrate the economy’s new found life?

“The report was not without pockets of weakness as wages stagnated and workforce participation matched a 36-year low,” said Bloomberg.  “Nonetheless, job growth was broad-based and the hiring pace accelerated at factories, builders and service providers after households spent more freely as the first quarter drew to a close, showing the economy is perking up.” Continue reading →

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How to Prepare Now for the Greatest Show on Earth

Posted on May 2, 2014 by MN Gordon

Last weekend we received a mailer from the city water department.  Long Beach has returned to water rationing.  Turf and landscape irrigation is only allowed on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday…before 9am or after 4pm.

No doubt, it’s hot and dry.  What’s more, the “big one” – where the San Andreas Fault separates the Pacific plate from the North American plate once and for all – is just around the corner.  You can almost feel it.

Something big is going on, indeed.  Here in the Golden State the Santa Ana winds have arrived early.  On Wednesday, the outer expanse of the Los Angeles Basin, where the lower foothills of the Cajon Pass rise to the high desert, went up in a giant blaze.

Before long, a wafting plume of dark gray smoke blanketed the expansive landscape from the San Gabriel Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.  The ominous aura was broken in the evening with an effervescent sunset.  We looked and listened…

Perhaps the gods were trying to tell us something.  “Get Out!” they warned.  So we thought we’d pass along the warning to you…Get Out! Continue reading →

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