Morning Brief – Eco Warriors

Eco Warriors

Those motorists who buy electric cars based on burnishing their green credentials might be interested to learn that the Chicago based Argonne National Laboratory has completed a study on how far one has to drive before the benefits of an electric car outweigh the harm done to the environment of a conventional petrol or diesel powered car. Based on the amount of aluminium and plastic in a car plus the lifetime emissions of the different vehicles plus the type of metals in an EV battery, the results were based on the behaviour of 43,000 users. Unsurprisingly the differences in conventionally powered cars were the main differentiator, but the average break even was that drivers of electric cars had to notch up more than 13,500 miles before their clean cars were actually cleaner than conventional cars. However this is not a precise science with the University of Liege disagreeing with their Chicago colleagues and finding that the breakeven was an extremely wide range of between 41,000 and 95,000 miles. Tesla shares remained firm on all this at $688 yesterday having been as low as $216 exactly a year ago. For those of you itching to buy Tesla, the high was reached on January 8 2021 at $880, so some upside …..assuming that that high is tested again.

BIS-The Central Banks’ Central Bank

Central Banks grappling with the question of whether the economic post Covid recovery is, or is not, longer term inflationary received little help from the BIS as it reported that it had concluded that the recovery was uneven across different countries making decisions on the amount of fiscal and monetary stimulus very difficult. Some schematics demonstrated what we all instinctively know: equity prices have risen sharply, house prices have similarly increased (the UK for example showing the fastest growth for 17 years) and corporate bond spreads ie the amount over the Government borrowing rate have almost halved in the past year as the world’s central banks have pumped liquidity into the system. Meanwhile outside the ivory towers and in the marketplace, EUR/USD at 1.1885 reflected the continuing belief in USD.

France

Shame that France lost to Switzerland in the Euros on Monday (I had them in the sweepstake) but the French enthusiasm for le shopping is undaunted: following the lifting of Covid restrictions, spending on everything has boomed with payment card data up 18% from the same period this time last year. So what have been the stand outs? Electronic goods up 45%, clothes up 30% and hospitality a more subdued increase of 10%. Mon dieu!

Pollstar

In 2018 figures released from Pollstar showed just how much the big touring bands earned in just the first 6 months of 2018 in those carefree pre-pandemic pre Brexit days which goes a long way to explain why the music industry is so exercised about the restrictions on bands touring or rather not touring: Rolling Stones $100M, The Eagles $84M, Roger Waters (ex Pink Floyd) $60M, U2 $60M, Bruce Springsteen $46M and Metallica $41M. Here is an appropriately named song made famous by Roger Waters: Money:

Money
Get away
You get a good job with good pay and you’re okay
Money
It’s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I’ll buy me a football team

Money
Well, get back
I’m all right Jack
Keep your hands off of my stack
Money
It’s a hit
Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit
I’m in the high-fidelity first class travelling set
I think I need a Lear jet

Money
It’s a crime
Share it fairly
But don’t take a slice of my pie
Money
So they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a raise
It’s no surprise that they’re giving none away

“HuHuh! I was in the right!”
“Yes, absolutely in the right!”
“I certainly was in the right!”
“You was definitely in the right. That geezer was cruising for a bruising!”
“Yeah!”…

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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