Markets are thriving, but the news tone is miserable.. how does that happen? Markets aren’t pricing in a rising tide of political friction, plus rising inequality of wealth and opportunity – but these things ultimately matter.
COP27 is proving a Tower of Babel, but the world is waking up to the reality of climate change and the opportunities it will be bring for climate change mitigation and renewable energy investments. Just don’t let the current financial industrial complex be setting the route-map! We need disruptive climate change investment!
Stock and Bond markets having been going up and down since year dot. Get used to it. But we do have long-term problems that won’t be solved effectively by short-term political and market objectives, or by the contradictions that lie at the heart of the human psyche.
Biden’s Tax and Climate Bill is the closest thing to a grown-up energy transition plan we’ve seen in the West. There is a significant risk ESG fundamentalism trips up efforts to reach carbon neutrality – but there are signs pragmatism will win out.
Its World Ocean Day – without the oceans we would not exist. We’re finally waking up to the reality of how oceans regulate and benefit the planet. We are learning to treat them better, yet there is so much more they could provide.
HSBC is being pilloried for comments made by its’ ESG head, but what he said is worthy of consideration. Overly emotional ESG is a distortion that may be as dangerous as climate change denial.
ESG is getting a bad press these days, blamed for energy insecurity and much else wrong with the allocation of capital. It needs to be refined: ESG version 2.1 will be critical for addressing the massive threats arising from social injustice and income inequality.
Wind power is the not the renewable energy panacea we are told it is. It is part of the climate change solution, but we need to understand it’s limitations, and not allow it to distort energy transition. More should be spent on alternatives like tide, hydro and thermal.
Energy and Food Security are intricately linked – and constitute the biggest and most immediate “no-see-um” threat markets have faced in decades. It’s time to get real about addressing energy transition and security, and climate change by accepting Nuclear energy is the most viable solution in the time left us.
Some investment banks are picking up cheap Russian assets – which negates the purpose and aims of sanctions, and will simply fuel Putin’s propaganda machine. Meanwhile, Blain’s stupidity index is only down 38% - which shows there are still greater fools out there…
