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The Great Reset: BlackRock Is Fueling A $120 Trillion Transformation On Wall St.

December 28, 2020

The Great Reset: BlackRock Is Fueling A $120 Trillion Transformation On Wall St.

Big money is turning its back on companies that aren’t conforming to one simple idea…

Sustainability.

And it’s fueling one of the biggest transfers of capital the world has ever seen.

In fact, within a year, 77% of institutional investors will stop buying into companies that aren’t, in some way, sustainable.

And the new King of Wall Street is leading the charge.

BlackRock, with over $7 trillion in assets under management, says its clients will double their ESG investments in just five years…

Money managers on the Street are saying climate change is their top concern…

And a ‘leading criteria’ when determining where they put their money to work.

Sustainable assets already account for $17.1 trillion…

But there could be as much as $120 trillion up for grabs.

And that’s exactly why sustainable stocks are outperforming the market.

They are the new go-to investment but could be far better than gold. This sector is a safe haven in that the road to sustainability is long. AND it’s not just Big Money’s downside protection against ESG-related risks, many are money-makers.

While Big Money is busy scrambling for somewhere to park this $120 trillion that’s up for grabs, it could be looking for something like Facedrive (TSX.V:FD, OTCMKTS:FDVRF) -a tech-driven, multi-vertical, next-gen company with an ESG-focused portfolio that just pulled off a major coup with the acquisition of Washington, DC-based Steer–a high-end EV subscription service that plans to get even more EVs on the road, and even to upend the way we think about car ownership altogether.

And this isn’t the only vertical that ties Facedrive into a multi-billion-dollar industry …

It’s tied to the $5-trillion global transportation industry, the $9 trillion healthcare industry, the $850-billion airline industry, the $600-billion major league sports industry and the $26-billion food delivery segment …

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

SkyNet is sentient and will destroy your investments and pension

June 18, 2017

SKYNET IS SENTIENT AND WILL DESTROY YOUR INVESTMENTS AND PENSION

SkyNet is Sentient and Will Destroy Your Investments and Pension

Do you really want to know about how SkyNet controls your investments and pension via the various financial markets? I ask with all sincerity because the subject is not pleasant and may even be frightening to those who have followed a strict diet of financial ignorance.

Once you know, it is nearly impossible to un-know. And just as there is never only one weed in the garden, knowing this inevitably leads to a critical juncture where one must then decide if they wish to know more or simply curl up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor.

You see, when “We the Mindless Minions” (desperately) wish to avoid responsibility for knowing, while the specific tactics used may vary greatly, the theme remains pretty consistent. I call it the Sgt. Schultz defense.

“I know nothing, I see nothing and I was never here.”

A variation of the theme, usually employed when among others, thus we cannot claim total ignorance about the uncomfortable subject presently being discussed, is brilliant in its ability to disavow responsibility while passing the buck to someone (anyone) at a higher pay grade.

“They would never let that happen/do that,” or the always reassuring “I’m sure someone’s looking into that as we speak.” Now how about those (fill in this blank with any sport, celebrity, politician, TV show or viral cat video).

Disavowing knowledge or responsibility, passing the buck and then changing the subject is the time tested way to live in blissful ignorance. Or as I have grown fond of saying, unconscious incompetence with a heaping side order of willful ignorance.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fresh Mainstream Nonsense on Gold Demand

May 16, 2016

Fresh Mainstream Nonsense on Gold Demand

They Will Never Get It…

We and many others have made a valiant effort over the years to explain what actually moves the gold market (as examples see e.g. our article “Misconceptions About Gold”, or Robert Blumen’s excellent essay “Misunderstanding Gold Demand”). Sometimes it is a bit frustrating when we realize it has probably all been for naught.

Gold bars are displayed at a gold jewellery shop in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh Gold wants to know what it has done now… Photo credit: Ajay Verma / Reuters

This was brought home to us again in a recent missive posted at Kitco, which discusses an RBC research note on gold. In a way, it is actually quite funny. The post at Kitco is titled “Gold’s ‘One-legged’ Rally Is Cause of Concern”.

We can assure you it is not of “concern” to us. But we did wonder why the rally was supposedly “one-legged”, so we decided to read on.

Here is what RBC has decided was worth sharing in its new research report:

Despite gold’s impressive run up so far this year, analysts at RBC Capital Markets are concerned by the “one-legged” nature of its rally. In a research report Friday, commodity strategists for the bank noted that gold’s 2016 upswing has been mainly driven by investors, while other sources of demand haven’t followed through.

“In fact, investment demand seems to be the only leg driving this one-legged rally. For us to turn positive, we would need to see this strength replicated elsewhere,” they said. “Investor sentiment has turned amid a flight to safety, but that seems to be the only sentiment that has in fact shifted.”

(emphasis added)

Color us completely flabbergasted. What “others sources of demand” apart from investment demand are supposedly needed to produce a rally in gold and make it two-legged or maybe even three-legged?

June gold, daily. You poor one-legged thing! – click to enlarge.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Going Into Debt to Invest Into Debt…

April 7, 2016

Going Into Debt to Invest Into Debt…

Bankers Hate It When You Hold Cash

In an extraordinary turn of events, last week we were contacted by our local bankers. Since we were turned down for a mortgage in 1982 (our business finances were thought to be “too shaky”), we have had little truck with them. We pay cash. They mind their own business.

cash-reserves1 Too many Benjamins! Photo credit: Andrew Magill / Flickr

But for the first time we can recall, not just one but three suits came to visit. Personable and intelligent, they were worried when they saw how much cash we were keeping on hand. No kidding. They came to visit to propose ways we could “put it to use.”

“You really should take some of that cash and invest it in municipal bonds” was the motion on the table.

“What if the municipalities can’t pay?” we asked.

“Don’t worry about that. Historically, the odds of default are extremely remote,” one of them answered.

“But what if interest rates turn up? Wouldn’t the default rate go up?”

“Well, maybe. But we keep the maturities short and invest only in the most creditworthy municipalities. The risk is very low.”

“Oh… but what if we just need some cash.”

“No problem. We’ll give you a line of credit.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re proposing to put me into debt so that I can keep my money invested in somebody else’s debt?”

“Uh… well… yes… and we’ll charge you less interest than you will earn from the municipal bonds.”

“Wait. You can earn a fee for putting my money in bonds… and earn another fee for lending me money… and I still end up ahead?”

“Yes. We just try to find ways to help clients with their financial needs.”

“Oh.”

peopleofpuertoricopublicimprovbondvig If unlucky, you’ll end up with one of these… Image via scripophily.net

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Investing In Silver Is Vastly Superior To Investing In Gold Right Now

March 21, 2016

Why Investing In Silver Is Vastly Superior To Investing In Gold Right Now

When panic and fear dominate financial markets, gold and silver both tend to rapidly rise in price. We witnessed this during the last financial crisis, and it is starting to happen again. Because I am the publisher of a website called The Economic Collapse Blog, I am often asked about gold and silver when I do interviews. In fact, just a few days ago I was sitting right next to Jim Rickards during the taping of a television show when this topic came up. Jim expressed his belief that investing in gold is superior to investing in silver, but I had the exact opposite viewpoint. In this article, I would like to elaborate on why I believe that silver represents a historic investment opportunity right now.

I should start out by disclosing that my wife and I have been able to put away a little bit of silver over the years. I wish that it could have been a lot more, but so often there are other priorities that need to be addressed. For example, I have always said that people need to take care of their emergency food storage first before even thinking about any kind of investments.

But if you have money left over after taking care of the basics, I am fully convinced that silver is a wonderful investment for the mid to long term. In this article, I am going to explain why this is the case. However, I have always warned that you have got to be ready for a rollercoaster ride if you get into precious metals. So if you can’t handle the ups and downs, you should probably avoid them altogether.

As I write this article, the price of gold is sitting at $1254.30 an ounce.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Major Investors Pressure ExxonMobil to Consider Climate Impacts

February 27, 2016

Major Investors Pressure ExxonMobil to Consider Climate Impacts

This is what Shannon Cleveland, head of Ceres’ Carbon Asset Risk Initiative, told DeSmog from Houston where she is attending the premier annual oil industry gathering known as CERAweek.

“That is just a message — that even with things as bad as they were in 2015 — no one was talking about here at CERAweek last year,” Cleveland continued. “I think there is actually an opportunity for this industry to start shifting.”

Ceres is a group that, according to its website, works with investors “to weave sustainable strategies and practices into the fabric and decision-making of companies, investors and other key economic players.”

Another sign of the shift was Al-Naimi saying that, “Solar is definitely going to be the answer to energy’s future.” This hasn’t been the typical messaging at past CERAweek events. However, the question that is critical for addressing climate change is — how far in the future?

Because Al-Naimi also noted that Saudi Arabia is exploring fracking technology to produce oil and gas and promised that, “We will produce it one of these days.” It’s unlikely Al-Naimi will join the “keep it in the ground” movement any time soon.

ExxonMobil Still Fighting Climate Change Action

One of the requests investors are making of oil companies is the testing of portfolios against a scenario where global temperature rise is limited to no more than 2 degrees.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Global Stocks Continue To Crash As Oil Plummets And Gold Skyrockets

February 12, 2016

Global Stocks Continue To Crash As Oil Plummets And Gold Skyrockets

Stock markets around the world continue to collapse as this new global financial crisis picks up more steam. In the U.S., the Dow lost 254 more points on Thursday, and it has now fallen for five days in a row. European stocks continued to get obliterated, and financial institutions are leading the way. But this week what is happening in Japan has been the most sobering. After falling 918 pointsthe other day, the Nikkei plunged another 760 points early on Friday. The Nikkei has now fallen for seven of the past eight days, and investors in Japan are in full panic mode. Overall, global stocks are well into bear market territory, and nearly 17 trillion dollars of global stock market wealth has already been wiped out.

As panic rises, investors are seeking alternative investments. On Thursday, the price of gold hit $1,260 an ounce at one point before settling back a bit. But even with the fade at the end of the day, it was still the biggest daily gain in more than two years. Overall, gold is having its best quarterly performance in 30 years.

Whenever a financial crisis happens, investors seek out safe havens such as gold that can help them weather the storm. In particular, demand for physical gold is going through the roof all over the planet. Just check out the following excerpt from a Telegraph article entitled “Investors ‘go bananas’ for gold bars as global stock markets tumble“…

BullionByPost, Britain’s biggest online gold dealer, said it has already taken record-day sales of £5.6m as traders pile into gold following fears the world is on the brink of another financial crisis.

Rob Halliday-Stein, founder and managing director of the Birmingham-based company, said takings today had already surpassed the firm’s previous one-day record of £4.4m in October 2014.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Looking for Sanity in an Insane World

January 8, 2016

Looking for Sanity in an Insane World

Why has China become so important? Largely because global investors are in this transition mode and do not understand how or why the foundation of everything is changing beneath them. The market turmoil in China spread around the world on Thursday as global investors took their lead from China as a contagion unfolded with no real understanding. Some try to justify this by saying China is a casino and not a real market that is trading on speculation rather than solid earnings. Those types of statements reveal the lack of knowledge of the speaker since ALL markets trade on anticipation — NOT on earnings (anyone remember the DOT.COM bubble?).

So global markets look for direction and make up excuses as they go to try to make it sound logical. As we have been warning, China is in an economic decline into 2020. Sorry, but that is the way it is. There is no dark conspiracy to suppress metals — it’s a deflationary wave since commodities became addicted to the Chinese demand that is now retreating. The rest of the world is in the same boat of deflation set in motion by rising taxes and tax enforcement as governments suck an ever-larger portion of wealth to sustain themselves at the expense of the private sector.

The euro has paused, not because of any reversal in trend, but simply because everyone became too short and it forced liquidations on what they assumed was a one-way street based solely upon fundamentals. Yet, the euro has been unable to rally to reach key resistance just yet. The Japanese yen has not risen because of a bullish change in trend, which is just capital retrenchment as markets decline. Never forget, the higher a currency rises, the greater the economic deflation. The ONLY WAY to turn the U.S. economy down is for a dollar rally — not a decline.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

A Hard Look at a Soft Global Economy

November 24, 2015

A Hard Look at a Soft Global Economy

MILAN – The global economy is settling into a slow-growth rut, steered there by policymakers’ inability or unwillingness to address major impediments at a global level. Indeed, even the current anemic pace of growth is probably unsustainable. The question is whether an honest assessment of the impediments to economic performance worldwide will spur policymakers into action.

Since 2008, real (inflation-adjusted) cumulative growth in the developed economies has amounted to a mere 5-6%. While China’s GDP has risen by about 70%, making it the largest contributor to global growth, this was aided substantially by debt-fueled investment. And, indeed, as that stimulus wanes, the impact of inadequate advanced-country demand on Chinese growth is becoming increasingly apparent.

Growth is being undermined from all sides. Leverage is increasing, with some $57 trillion having piled up worldwide since the global financial crisis began. And that leverage – much of it the result of monetary expansion in most of the world’s advanced economies – is not even serving the goal of boosting long-term aggregate demand. After all, accommodative monetary policies can, at best, merely buy time for more durable sources of demand to emerge.

Moreover, a protracted period of low interest rates has pushed up asset prices, causing them to diverge from underlying economic performance. But while interest rates are likely to remain low, their impact on asset prices probably will not persist. As a result, returns on assets are likely to decline compared to the recent past; with prices already widely believed to be in bubble territory, a downward correction seems likely. Whatever positive impact wealth effects have had on consumption and deleveraging cannot be expected to continue.

The world also faces a serious investment problem, which the low cost of capital has done virtually nothing to overcome. Public-sector investment is now below the level needed to sustain robust growth, owing to its insufficient contribution to aggregate demand and productivity gains.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Analyst Warns Of Turbulence: ‘Geopolitical Dislocations Could Result In Key Resource Supplies Disappearing’

October 26, 2015

Analyst Warns Of Turbulence: ‘Geopolitical Dislocations Could Result In Key Resource Supplies Disappearing’

Some of the world’s biggest investors have been taking significant positions in the commodity resource sector as of late, most notably in gold. With geopolitical tension and fear of economic breakdown reaching a near boiling point, it’s not difficult to see why. Instability pervades the entire system, encompassing everything from financial markets to social safety nets. And while it is easy to ignore the seriousness of current events because stock markets remain at record highs and mainstream pundits continue to toe the recovery line, the fact is that an unexpected and seemingly minor event could well send the entire world into a tailspin.

According to analyst John Kaiser, this is exactly what we need to be concerned with. In a candid interview with Future Money Trends Kaiser explains just how political dislocations could result in supply lines to critical commodities like food, copper, zinc and gold being cut – even without a major war – should the United States, Russia and China continue to bump heads.

(Watch at Future Money Trends or Youtube)

Forget about the big, giant macro-economic increases in overall global GDP, but instead let’s look at the turbulence we’re starting to see where China is asserting itself in the South China Sea area… where Putin is eyeing its lost colonies in Europe and Central Asia and thinking maybe we should re-establish the Soviet empire… where we see instability in the middle east.

Then you also realize that a lot of metal comes from China… a lot of metal comes from Russia. And if we end up in a shoving match where, say, the United States pushes back in the South China Sea… and Chinese generals get all up in arms and we end up with an incident… well what happens if China suddenly has sanctions going against it… or something similar, that Russia goes beyond messing in the Ukraine and starts taking out Latvia or Estonia?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Once Burned, Twice Shy? Utica Shale Touted to Investors As Shale Drillers Continue Posting Losses

August 3, 2015

Once Burned, Twice Shy? Utica Shale Touted to Investors As Shale Drillers Continue Posting Losses

For the past several weeks, the drilling industry — hammered by bad financial results — has begun promoting its next big thing: the Utica shale, generating the sort of headlines you might have seen five years ago, when the shale drilling rush was gaining speed. “Utica Shale Holds 20 Times More Gas Than Previous Estimates”, read one headline. “Utica Bigger Than Marcellus”, proclaimed another.

The reason for the excitement was a study, published by West Virginia University, that concluded the Utica contains more shale gas than many estimates for the Marcellus shale, a staggering 782 trillion cubic feet.

“This is a landmark study that demonstrates the vast potential of the Utica as a resource to complement – and go beyond – what the Marcellus has already proven to be,” Brian Anderson, director of West Virginia University’s Energy Institute, told the Associated Press.

But those considering investments based on the Utica’s potential may want to pause and consider the shale industry’s long history of circulating impressive predictions, later quietly downgraded, while spending far more than they earn.

“The industry has not been generating enough money to cover its capital spending and dividends,” Fidelity Investments energy fund manager John Dowd told Barrons.

Indeed, while it is clear that the shale drilling rush has produced large amounts of oil and gas, (alongside wastewater and other environmental impacts), the financial prosperity promised by its backers has not seemed to materialize.

Burning Through Cash

Companies like Chesapeake Energy, the nation’s second largest producer of natural gas and one of the most aggressive advocates of the shale rush nationwide, have been hammered hard by low oil prices and high costs in 2015.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Wave of Defaults, Bankruptcies Spook Bond Investors

June 20, 2015

Wave of Defaults, Bankruptcies Spook Bond Investors

First things first: Investor desperation for yield, any discernible yield no matter what the risks, and blind confidence that all this will work out somehow are waning.

Now questions pop up here and there, and investors are beginning to open their eyes just a tad amid waves of defaults and bankruptcies, after years of worriless fixed-income bliss during which cheap new money made investors forgive and forget all sins of the past. But now investors are pulling big chunks of money out.

For the week ended June 17, investors yanked “a whopping” $2.9 billion out of junk bond funds, according to S&P Capital IQ/ LCD’s HighYieldBond.com, on top of the $2.6 billion they’d yanked out in the prior week. Those redemptions dragged down the year-to-date inflows to $3.6 billion, nearly 40% below last year at this time. But $201.5 billion remain in those funds.

Leverage-loan funds have been plagued by outflows as investors have been warned for a couple of years about their risks. Banks extend high-risk loans to over-indebted, junk-rated companies but don’t want to keep these iffy loans on their books. So they sell them to loan funds or repackage them into CLOs and then sell them. Even the Fed has gotten concerned. This week brought more of the same, with $311 million leaving leveraged-loan funds, bringing year-to-date outflows to $3.6 billion. Total fund assets are now down to $94 billion.

On the investment-grade side, it didn’t look pretty either. Business Insider cited Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists: “High grade credit funds suffered their biggest outflow this year, and double the previous week.” The biggest outflows since the Taper Tantrum in June 2013. There was more doom and gloom:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Difficult to invest in green energy in Canada without Big Oil

June 6, 2015

Difficult to invest in green energy in Canada without Big Oil

Divestiture movement continues as organizations clean carbon holdings from portfolios

If you thought the divestiture movement was losing steam, Norway’s recent announcement shows there still is momentum around the world to stop investing in fossil fuels.

The country has confirmed that its hefty $900-billion government pension fund, considered the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, will purge some of its fossil fuel stocks.

Many other organizations have made similar moves in past years.

Concordia University in Montreal launched a $5-million fund dedicated to divestment, social and ethical investing. Stanford University in California pledged not to make direct investments in companies whose principal business is coal for energy. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund pledged to reduce investments in coal and the oilsands projects to less than one per cent of its portfolio.

But in Canada, divestiture may not be the best method of promoting renewable energy development.

Syncrude oil sands site near Fort McMurray

Traditional oil, gas and coal companies are creating the majority of renewable energy in Alberta. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

The reason is that, outside of government, it is the traditional oil and gas companies that are constructing much of the green energy projects in the country, such as wind, hydro and solar.

For instance, the largest wind and hydro projects in Alberta are owned in whole or in part by traditional oil, gas and coal companies.

Capital Power is an example of a private sector company with a mixed bag of energy projects. It’s a leader in renewable energy development and uses fossil fuels too. The Edmonton-based company has more than 20 wind and solar power plants in North America. It also operates a coal mine as well as several coal- and natural gas-fired plants.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Money from Heaven, Path to Hell

April 18, 2015

Money from Heaven, Path to Hell

What the Fed is going on?!

The free-flowing money from the Fed appears to be “Money from heaven” at this point. And in some ways it absolutely is – but only if you take advantage of it personally and decide to protect yourself by locking in these “artificial” gains you’ve been given. Because this “Money from heaven” will undoubtedly become a “Path to hell.”

But it doesn’t have to. Why take unnecessary risks? “Paper gains” aren’t profits until they are realized. Millions of people are rudely reminded of this every time the stock market takes a dump. And if you’re forced to sell due to a myriad of reasons such as Required Minimum Distributions, margin calls, basic income needs, college tuition, emergencies, debt balloon payments, etc. – that’s precisely when “paper losses” suddenly become actual losses.

I know, I know, you might say, “No problem, I just won’t sell then. I’ll wait for it to come back.”

“It will come back” is not an investment strategy! It’s financial disaster. Especially as it pertains to the stock market and mutual funds, which historically have taken far longer to recover losses than in most other non-correlated investment strategies. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news: if you wait until the stock market drops, you’ve already lost. You’ll either lose by selling or lose by not selling and waiting. It’s a lose-lose proposition.

We might be tempted to rewrite the recent past as ancient history. The folks who had the majority of their money in mutual funds when they retired or were planning to retire around 2001 or 2008? Instead of taking profits when they could have and then continuing their growth in other non-correlated investments, they have spent all those years just trying to dig and claw their way out of the hole, hoping to get back to even. But “hope” is not an investment strategy either!

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Central Banks Warn: Liquidity May Evaporate When Investors Finally Remove Blindfolds

March 28, 2015

Central Banks Warn: Liquidity May Evaporate When Investors Finally Remove Blindfolds

Companies are selling bonds like madmen. This year through Tuesday, investment-grade and junk-rated companies have sold $438 billion in new bonds, up 14% from the prior record for this time of the year, set in 2013, according to Dealogic. This quarter is already in second place, nudging up against the all-time quarterly record of $455 billion of Q2 2014.

About $87 billion of these bonds funded takeovers, a record for this time of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The four biggest bond sales in that batch were for healthcare takeovers, including the Actavis deal whose $21 billion bond sale was the second largest in history, behind Verizon’s $49 billion bond sale in 2013.

Actavis had received orders for more than four times the bonds available, according to CFO Tessa Hilado. “You don’t really know what the demand is until people start placing their orders,” she said. “I would say we were pleasantly surprised.”

Brandon Swensen, co-head of U.S. fixed income at RBC Global Asset Management, couldn’t “see anything on the radar that’s going to slow things down materially,” he told the Wall Street Journal. His firm expects rates to “remain low.”

All of the investors chasing after these bonds expect rates to remain low. Or else they wouldn’t chase after these bonds. If rates rise, as the Fed is promising in its convoluted cacophonous manner, these bonds that asset managers are devouring at super-high prices and minuscule yields are going to be bad deals. And their bond funds are going to take a bath.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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