Boeing is a lesson in broken capitalism. It’s latest safety catastrophe highlights multiple management failures. Things are set to get worse as the Global Economy realigns and the US turns isolationist. Who will eventually dominate air travel?

This week’s “shock” announcement of a major aero-engine maintenance crisis with RTX engines on Airbus Neo Narrowbodies is reverberating round the aircraft market. It pushes up the value of older aircraft – and will impact many airlines.

The news “green” Pratt & Whitney engines don’t work very well on new aircraft puts a whole new slant on the economics of airlines – favouring mid-life planes over less reliable, but oh-so-environmentally-more-friendly new ones..

Orders are piling up at the Paris Airshow, but fractured supply chains, labour shortages and engine problems means new aircraft deliveries are delayed for years. That’s opportunity, but also hints at new dynamics in terms of how the aviation sector develops – the Age of Cheap Flight may be over.

Aviation is booming. Airlines are buying planes. Passengers want to fly. There are just a few little problems... There aren’t enough planes. That makes Aircraft as an Alternative Asset a great investment opportunity.

Blain’s Morning Porridge Feb 2nd 2023 – The End of [...]

BP will use some of its windfall Ukraine Oil Spike profits to fund a stock buy-back. Stock buy-backs are appropriate is some limited circumstances, but generally they distort the way capitalism is supposed to work, undermining good companies and sound corporate governance.

Two simple questions for Central Banks; what was their plan, and what is it now? The consequences of 14 years of monetary experimentation are upon us. From Macro to Micro, Boeing is a sad illustration of the consequences of central bank policy.

The immediate financial market outlook is risk-off driven by Ukraine, followed by rising fears and concerns about inflation policy mistakes, wondering when to pick the bottom in the tech cycle to buy great ideas, why Boeing should be in jail, and longer-term concerns about where we are going in terms of transition. 

A new book on the fall of Boeing is getting the headlines this morning. I’ve been arguing it illustrates all the worst excess of capitalism – yet how many investors have called it out? Very few. Why does ESG apparently not apply to Boeing?