If you look at Buffett’s major acquisitions since 2008, you will find something in common— oil. Let’s take a look.
obama and the dems have blocked the keystone pipeline carrying oil from the canadian tarsands. Buffett is a beneficiary of that as he owns railroads that will carry part of the output in the absence of the pipeline
The planet will never run out of oil, but that’s only because at some point it will become economically unfeasible to mine it. Same for coal.
When is that time? I don’t know.
Somewhere down the road, the great bulk of the energy used by humans will be green and sustainable. I hope it happens in my lifetime - and sooner rather than later - and I hope the planet isn’t in irreparable shape when the tide turns.
i believe oil prices will go higher…i think its quite obvious it will (just not in a straight line)…buffet no doubt feels the same from the stuff i have read so not surprise to see him into companies that benefit from higher oil prices…
I bet Obama is going to approve Keystone XL because he wants to take out Iran. So he has to secure the supply the oil before the war and Canada obviously is the best choice. You can check the change of the top ten countries from which US imports oil in recent years. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbbl_a.htm
I’m not sure how much politics really plays into where our oil comes from. Persian Gulf oil and OPEC oil are basically the same percentage of total imports that they were in 2006. Canadian oil has indeed increased as a percentage of total imports, but I suspect that is largely a function of technological improvement in extracting oil from Canada’s tar sands and the fact that the price of tar sands oil becomes more competitive as overall oil prices increase. If the Gulf nations and OPEC jacked up production and drove down oil prices, Canada’s tar sand oil would be priced out of the market.
Robert Bryce, the author of The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence” believes that no alternative energy can replace fossil fuel for decades to come, and yet the availability of fossil fuel is decreasing at a alarmingly speed. The Laws of Thermodynamics tell us human is a kind of biomass just like trees and cows and we need energy to survive. And huamn population is corrolated with the amounts of energy that support our lives. So if useful energy drops dramaticly, so does human population. Below is quote from Wikipedia:
“Since supplies of oil and gas are essential to modern agriculture techniques, a fall in global oil supplies could cause spiking food prices and unprecedented famine in the coming decades.[46][note 1] Geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer contends that current population levels are unsustainable, and that to achieve a sustainable economy and avert disaster the United States population would have to be reduced by at least one-third, and world population by two-thirds.[47][48]”
And Charlie Munger’s friend, Ecologist Garrett Hardin also discussed this issue in his book Living Within Limits.
i hardly believe in any of the forecast figures I see from “experts”…they seem all over the map…assertions like “imminent famine” “global starvation” are kinda over the top…
I love reading these types of doomsday theories, but I find it extremely difficult to believe. they tap into the same part of my brain that loves watching ancient aliens
I love that show.
I had a SS report that predicted $200 oil in June 2008. I kept it on my desk and later that year the sales guy came in the office and it was really fun talking to him about that one…when oil was at $40.
You can laugh at those experts but I’ll be very careful when laughing at people like Charlie Munger and Buffett because they put their money and reputation in their investments. Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giAVYfzCzBc
this is some tinfoil hat shit.
Then why Canada’s sand oil was not priced out in 2009, when the oil prices were vey low?
I can’t get to youtube at work, so I can’t watch the video, but I’ll try to pull it up when I get home. Here’s my take on this all - gather 'round.
We’re sure as shit going to move over to renewable energies. Which one? I don’t know. Personally, I’d prefer solar, since it won’t muddy up markets for other commodities by creating weird incentives for farmers (unless, of course, there’s a sunlight market I’m not aware of). Also, it’s the effing sun. We’ll never have to discuss whether we’re on the brink of reaching “peak sunshine” or whether the Africans are artificially manipulating supply. Hell, maybe solar energy is how we get the African nations to be real economic participants. I hear once that they have a decently sized desert over there.
I remember reading that it’s laughable to think that we can capture enough energy with our current technology, though. So, something else will win in the near term (that is, my lifetime). Figuring out who will win is above my pay grade and subject to political lobbying.
Whether we move to renewables before there’s an act of war that kills global oil supply is up for debate. However, I think that said act of war will happen well before we run out of oil to mine out of the ground. That attack (or attacks) is what will cause oil prices to spike and maintain high levels indefinitely.
Dave Allan Pfeiffer’s call for new plague, a la Dwight from the Office, is ridiculous. As long as farmers are being paid to not farm their fields, then the issue is about allocation of resources and not the ability to find / generate / harvest resources.