Utilities need EVs to make their business model work

This article explains why without all that spare capacity running (mainly) overnight to charge battery electric vehicles (BEVs), electric utilites are going to really struggle. The article is about California, but it seems to me that where California is now, the UK will be in five to ten years. It’s not for nothing that California led the way in forcing car manufacturers to cut emissions.

JMP caught in criminal activity again

This time it’s manipulating the market in precious metals. It’s almost as if a fine of $920m is not a big disincentive for a firm that makes $30-40 billion net income a year and has total assets of $2,687 billion.

Can a country “import itself out of trouble”? Probably not.

This article explains that a lot of the stimulus money provided by the Fed and spent by recipients of pandemic support will end up benefiting manufacturers outside of the USA (a lot in Mexico, I’d guess).

S&P 500 in terms of stock of money (M2)

The FRED database is very useful. This chart shows how the recent strong showing of the stockmarket is not so impressive if expressed as a fraction of the stock of money. Of course, M2 does not only go into inflating the stockmarket, but it looks as though more of it does than previously was the case, and — adjusted for M2 growth — this year’s stockmarket performance has been distinctly average.