The Stock Market Thread

I think it is viewed as necessary in the tech world. Programmers and data analysts don't want to come in to offices. They aren't going to be first out the door.

 

Agree on this point. It's workers in other industries where this is relatively new which will be impacted, imo. I've seen it before in my industry (professional services.)

 

Then we might as well say goodbye to the USA. I paradoxically would not be able to afford to work

 

Gas tax holidays aren’t effective. People think it’s a relative deal so they use more. But the actual discount is pretty minimal. Someone who drives 20,000 miles a year and gets 20 miles to the gallon would save $15 a month.

 

Ya, they are ineffective in total because the benefits get balanced out by the drawbacks it would seem to me.

 

I think in my world (large public accounting firm) they’ll force people back. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. One of our competitors has fully committed to 100% virtual being an option (basically you have to pick in person vs. virtual) forever.

 

You want to help people? Then have some actual damn energy policies that are meaningful and not just wishcasting. Energy is life. Low cost widely available energy is the engine of the economy. Yet we have decided that we will make supply scarce to drive a transition. That just makes for a lot of pain until that notion and those people get voted out. There is no durable political coalition that will withstand energy inflation all the way to the poor house.

 

What energy is scarce?

 

I don’t know much about energy and oil and who knows about the accuracy of things I read on social media, but do we or don’t we have plenty of oil in Texas, NM and off the coast to tap and help fix issues?

 

Fixing issues, or kicking the can down the road until the next time?

 

We still produce more than we use. There is no supply issue. This is the market.

 

I think forgiveness means the publicly held student loans, not the private ones.

If the government says debtors don't have to repay government loans, not sure why that wouldn't hold up.

The best fix would be to just stop interest, though. Recoup principal, or as much as possible before the discharge date.

 

The general policy at play here is to drive oil and gas toward scarcity to drive their prices up and make them harder to get forcing a transition alternatives. That is being achieved by techniques such as blocking pipelines, using regulations as a barriers, signaling onerous future policies that make investment difficult and drive capital from the sector. It’s both government but also activism-driven.

 

It is the same thing for wind, solar, and nuclear, so it isn't some scheme to force a transition. People don't like big infrastructure if it affects them.

 

Fair that folks often don’t like infrastructure. But Texas doesn’t have problems laying pipes that don’t cross state lines. But as soon as they do then federal reviews are triggered. And suddenly they get very hard to do because there are members of government as well as activists that use these reviews to push political agendas.

It id actually quite different for wind and solar, en masse, than oil and gas. I agree nuclear was put on the shit list some time ago. But there are not threats of killing wind and solar from government that make investing in 20 year infrastructure a concern. That is becoming true for oil and gas. Generally companies are beginning to see running for cash and just maintaining operations as a much more safe path than making longer-term investments.

I just can’t stand seeing Granholm laughing on TV about how we just don’t get it. That these commodities won’t be needed in 2030 (wrong) so they need to transition products but that they should also invest today as a patriotic duty because it isn’t 2030 yet. It’s idiotic policy.

 

You can't build wind in many places at all anymore. There are laws like making it illegal to put up a turbine within x miles of any property boundary, which by default means nowhere.

 

Probably going to be the first to go. Out of sight, out of mind.

Same is going to happen with promotions.

 

This was the case for those boom/bust tech companies like the e-scooters and various social platforms. You lay off the ones who come to meetings on zoom, not the ones you pass in the hallway.

 

Right or wrong, it's how it happens.

 

In my experience in the professional services/consulting sector, billable hours was king. If you were in the office you probably were not billing and were trying to kiss azz to save your azz. We looked at your billable percentage, low man/woman were first out the door.