It's not technically a new decade yet. But if the trade of the last decade was to sell stocks and buy gold, then maybe the best trade for the next ten years is to sell bonds and buy energy. Gas, coal, oil, conventional, unconventional, renewable, alternative. You have a whole ...read more

Through the tangle of green shoots and sprouting mustard seeds, a certain nervous view persists that the arc of events is taking us to places unimaginable.  The collapse of General Motors and Chrysler signifies more than the collapse of US car manufacturing.  It spells the end of the motoring era ...read more

Last week, I spent a full day in a seminar on climate change. It was a totally sober and professional seminar, sponsored by a group that specializes in continuing legal education for attorneys. I heard talks by a variety of lawyers, academics and regulators, mostly about how “the train has ...read more

Euphoria managed to out-run swine flu last week as the epidemic-du-jour, with "consumer" confidence jumping and the big bank stocks nudging up. The H1N1 virus fizzled for now, at least in terms of kill ratio, though we're warned it might boomerang in the fall with a vengeance. No one was ...read more

The other day I had lunch with a “brain trust,” of sorts.  Participants included a retired executive from an aerospace company.  This guy helped design and build many of the reconnaissance satellites that the U.S. has launched.  There was a senior executive from a large steel company.  There was a ...read more

For many years, we in the West have worried about Iran closing the Straits of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic.  An abrupt closure would instantly spike oil prices well into three-digits, and immediately change the energy equation of the world.  Indeed, many geostrategic scholars believe that closing the Straits of ...read more

The arguments made against the proposed “net-positive” gas tax deserve a response, because they dismiss the tax’s raison d'être and they suffer from flawed reasoning.  Here is my response: The chief criticism is that the government should not be entrusted with any additional power to tax, for all the usual reasons.  ...read more

I think Dr. George Doddington was eloquent, sincere, and convincing in his March 23rd piece "A Net-Positive Gas Tax" where he supported the immediate implementation of Charles Krauthammer’s "net-zero" gasoline tax.  I also think he was wrong. Let’s suppose for a moment that a charismatic Democratic President of socialist bent and ...read more

Can you believe that winter is officially over? Wow, it was a cold couple of months. Makes you want to say, “So much for global warming.” Except it’s not global warming anymore. Now it’s called “climate change.” Y’see, the cold winter wasn’t a sign of warming. It was a sign of ...read more

I don’t know about you, but 2008’s oil spike made me angry. Back in the middle of the year oil was sitting around $140 a barrel and gas was $4.50 a gallon. It took me about $50 to fill up the tank of my Corolla -- which really got my blood ...read more