Unseen Consequences of Electrification |
Thursday, 9 May 2024 | By James Cooper | Editor, Mining: Phase One and Diggers and Drillers |
|
Twitter (X): @JCooperGeo [6 min read] In this Issue: Are you blanketed in EV electrosmog? The rise of oil in 2024 The US economy doesn’t need cheaper credit. |
|
Dear Reader, I have something a little different for you today. A few days ago, I came across some interesting research that examined the effects of modern tech and its byproducts. I’m not saying it’s correct or that I believe the research, but I thought it offered an interesting perspective on the global warming debate. It’s a phenomenon known as ‘electrosmog!’ For the billions of iPhones, smart TVs, modems, emails and Tweets, there’s a hidden impact on the environment. I’m not talking about the carbon emission in energising these technologies. I’m also not referring to the environmental or human toll involved in mining the vast critical metals needed to build the billions of devices circulating in the modern world. I’m referring to the potential consequence known as electromagnetic radiation or EMR. It is known to some health researchers as electrosmog. Just consider the billions of devices communicating across the planet. For better or worse, our lives exist under a smog of electromagnetic radiation. The consequences of that are virtually unknown. Electromagnetic radiation emits high-frequency waves; some scientists believe that the quantity of EMR in our modern world contributes to global warming. Is that true? The jury is still out. There’s scant research investigating the impacts of EMF and its contribution to a warming climate. However, one researcher named W. John Martin released a study connecting EMR to human-induced global warming. A complex connection involving physical interactions in the global atmosphere. If it’s true, what would that say about the role of electrification in combating climate change? After all, EVs are amongst the highest-intensity emitters of electrosmog! What a paradox that would be. Martin’s investigation sits on the fringe between pseudoscience and traditional academia. However, as an investor, it pays to think critically and challenge popular opinion. An open mind may allow you to see opportunities when most aren’t paying attention. The Biological Impact But back to EMF. While the debate on EMF and its influence on global warming is still in its infancy, electromagnetic radiation’s impact on biological systems is indisputable. Tests conducted by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection in the US have found potentially harmful levels of EMF emittance in electric vehicles. According to them, levels are especially harmful when users are charging the batteries of an electric car. And as we move to a 5G network and technify virtually every aspect of our lives—transport, entertainment, food, work—the volume of electromagnetic radiation is set to surge. AI will bolster that even further. In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified radiofrequency radiation (a form of EMF) as a possible 2B carcinogen. Scientists have found that when birds encounter radio frequency waves, they lose their regular navigational capacities. This causes neural damage, locomotory defects, and reproductive capacity issues. And with more legitimate studies outlining the potentially harmful consequences of electrosmog, what does that do in the relentless pursuit to technify and electrify everything? Probably very little. We all need devices to function and live in this modern world. But another paradox to all this… Oil and combustion engines may be the least bad option we have. Will EMF smog become the new carbon dioxide? This is an interesting question, given that EMF exposure is set to explode exponentially in the years to come. Perhaps eventually, it will be a case of out with the new and in with the old—a return to the oil-fuelled economy and a limit to the relentless expansion of technifying and electrifying everything. It’s possible, but again, unlikely. That’s why there’s no need to sell your lithium stocks right now! Before I leave you today, I want to let you know that we’ll be going in-depth into the oil and gas sector next week. That might not sit well with everyone, but as I’ve outlined today, I believe there’s still much to learn regarding our understanding of energy, climate change and health. Many investors have permanently abandoned oil stocks. It’s a severely unloved sector and, in many cases, undervalued. That offers a ripe opportunity for investors willing to explore this area more. We’ll do that next week. Until then, Regards, James Cooper, Editor, Mining: Phase One and Diggers and Drillers James Cooper has been a working geologist in mines across Australia, Canada, and Africa since the early 2000s. He’s led the operations of tiny explorers through to huge producer outfits. He’s seen booms and busts firsthand and he also understands the cyclical nature of individual commodities. For example, James was right there when Barrick Gold launched an enormous $7.5 billion takeover bid for Equinox. That was the peak of the last cycle. With his background as a geo and finance professional, he brings a unique insight and experience to Fat Tail Investment Research. He writes the broader resource-focused investing letter Diggers and Drillers and the ultra-speculative explorer-focused trading service Mining: Phase One. Advertisement: Four Little-Known Aussie Stocks Primed for a MASSIVE 2025 PLAY #1 IS ‘ONE OF THE BEST SCARCITY STORIES ON ANY LISTED MARKET’. PLAY #2 IS A $400 MILLION PILBARA DOMINATOR. PLAY #3 IS A SUB-40-CENT STOCK WITH PLANS TO OPEN UP THE WORLD’S SECOND-LARGEST GRAPHITE RESERVE. PLAY #4 IS BUILDING THE WORLD’S LARGEST PROCESSING FACILITY FOR ANOTHER SUPER-SQUEEZE METAL. Click here for the full presentation. |
|
How the Fed Came to Love Inflation |
| By Bill Bonner | Editor, Fat Tail Daily |
|
[3 min read] ‘The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.’ Thomas Jefferson We left off yesterday with the provocative idea that the Fed doesn’t really want to stifle inflation. It wants more inflation...enough to lower the real value of US debt. Today, we examine the swindle behind it. At 5% inflation, other things remaining the same, the US would cut the real value of its government debt by $1.7 trillion in a single year. Trouble is, other things don’t remain equal. At current levels of deficits, the US adds $1.7 trillion in new debt per year. Tough situation. The feds need either more inflation...or less spending. Our longstanding prediction: they will choose inflation. On the surface, the Fed is four-square, dead-set against inflation. It will swear upon a Trump Bible that it intends to get the CPI down to 2%, and that it will look neither to the right nor to the left until the job is done. More to the Story But there’s always more to the story. Who wins? Who loses? Who decides? There’s the superficial, political analysis...and there are the deeper currents of history, the Megapolitical analysis. In public, the Fed fights inflation; in private, it encourages it. The media report that two things are pulling the Fed in different directions. Some recent inflation news, for example, is ‘negative’. That is, it tells us that the economy is weakening and could use a dose of EZ money. The job market is weakening. New jobs posted in April were fewer than expected. Total employment rose...but at the lowest rate in three years. Unemployment went up. Job openings went down. A better measure of the job market is the actual number of hours worked; the last reading of that measure was negative, indicating a weaker economy. And manufacturing (according to the Purchasing Managers’ Index) signalled recession. But what ho! Among the surface chop there was some ‘positive’ (inflationary) news, too. The Case-Shiller measure of house prices went up to another all-time high in February. Labor costs (including wages and benefits) rose more than expected. Prices at the wholesale level rose to their highest level in 2 years. (A sign of higher inflation to come?) And the decline in the US money supply seems to be bottoming out. False Conclusion All of these things suggest that the US economy doesn’t need cheaper credit. Just the opposite; it could use higher interest rates to lower inflation. As it is, consumer prices are still going up at about two times the Fed’s target. Economists argue about which of these data points is most important...and whether the balance of opinion leans towards rate cuts...or a rate hike. The typical observer might draw a completely false conclusion: that the Fed has the power to tip the scales in whatever direction it wants. He might think that the Fed can always control interest rates...and with wisdom that surpasseth understanding can guide the economy along the path to prosperity and growth forever, neatly inflating with cheap money when needed and cutting off the stimulus when growth and inflation threaten to get out of hand. But that’s not the way it works. Beneath this newsy blather is a much different story — one with a beginning and an end...and a moral. The genesis came in 1971, with the introduction of a new dollar that the deciders could diddle. Over time, the Fed’s easy money — especially during the 2009-2021 ‘zero interest rate’ phase — led people to borrow far more than they otherwise would. Today, total US debt — household, business and government — approaches $100 trillion, nearly four times US GDP. You can see the problem. The higher the debt, the more of your current earnings you must use to pay the interest. At a uniform 5% interest, for example, America would need to use almost 20% of its GDP just to pay interest...while swindling the next generation by leaving the principal amount unpaid. The lead borrower was, of course, the US government itself. On the flip side of borrowing is repaying. Mathematically, the US could pay down its debt. It would require abandoning its global empire, however. And trimming domestic social welfare programs too. Politically, it is impossible to make those changes; like an alcoholic, the country will have to ‘hit bottom’ first. That leaves inflation as the only real option. The feds know that. They need to get the inflation rate up, not down, so that the real value of the government’s debt goes down to a more manageable level. That’s why, even with inflation at twice the Fed’s target, Powell is still insisting that the next move will be to lower rates, not raise them. The public may not want higher prices. But the people who matter do — Big Money, Big Business, and Big Government. Stay tuned. Regards, Bill Bonner, For Fat Tail Daily All advice is general advice and has not taken into account your personal circumstances. Please seek independent financial advice regarding your own situation, or if in doubt about the suitability of an investment. |
|
Advertisement: THREE GOLD STOCKS TO PLAY THE COMING BULL MARKET The founder of The Australian Gold Fund believes the Australian gold stock sector is already in a bull market in 2024. Discover the details on three stocks he’s recommending to play the potentially historic bull run in 2024: CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS |
|
|