1 Oct

EVs are the lard arses of the road

Most EVs weigh in excess of two tonnes. In comparison, the kerb weight of the old Renault 4 (admittedly, a flimsy car) could be as low at 600kg, 30% of the EV’s weight. It doesn’t make sense to me, if one is concerned about saving the planet, to expend the energy to move in such a massive lump of machinery and battery around the countryside.

Going back to the chart, it’s interesting that several of the Tesla’s models are absolutely terrible in terms of miles per kg of battery.

Inflation is spiking so sell bonds, right?

Actually, wrong: all that cash from equity investors liquidating their portfolios has got to go somewhere, and US Treasuries are the world’s only safe asset. Especially the only safe asset that actually pays a positive return, even if it is only 1.4%. And anyway, since it’s the perfect collateral, a suitable level of gearing can turn that 1.4% into 14% for an investor with enough … savvy.

Wrap

This will be the last wrap from me for a week. Basically, today was a risk-on day. Last month was ‘the worst ever’ (because SPX declined by a few percent), but now October is ‘the best ever’ (but maybe only today, as funds allocate their new inflows to risk assets). The usual constellation was found: DXY down, USDJPY down, equities up, commodities up, even bonds up (a tiny bit). Chamath is getting into trouble, as it emerges he sold all his $TSLA holdings before telling his followers to hold as it was going up 3X. Crazy Cathie is still pumping, but her ETF $ARKK is not available for shorting. Merck ($MRK) announced it had an oral drug which has been found to be effective against Covid, which pushed up its stock price and depressed those of $MRNA and $PFE. Nearly all energy stocks were up. $RIDE was down > 18%, $APRN continued its wild ride (up > 10%).

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