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Tag: geopolitics

The Fallacy of Renewable Energy: Leigh Goehring, Goehring & Rozencwajg Associates (Szn 4, Ep 10)

Leigh Goehring, managing partner of Goehring & Rozencwajg, joins the podcast to discuss his view that most renewable energies are ineffective at reducing carbon output and pointless as investments.

Content Highlights

  • The consensus opinion is that renewable energy will solve many of the problems of CO2 production and energy needs. This is false (3:12);
  • The “terrible energy efficiency” associated with renewables will make the world poorer (5:00);
  • What is the problem with solar and wind and why are they so inefficient? (7:20);
  • It’s no coincidence that the energy crisis started in Germany, which is now forced to import coal (12:20);
  • Vaclav Smil and the premise that there has never been a new technology with inferior energy efficiency that displaced the old technology (13:59);
  • The ulterior motives behind China’s green energy push (18:33);
  • The “great hope” for a Moore’s Law of wind mills and solar panels is a fallacy. Input prices have declined because energy prices have (21:05);
  • Where does that leave electric cars? (25:00);
  • Background on the guest (33:42);
  • What parts of the energy industry are better targets for investment right now? Look to uranium for starters, “the perfect solution to our problems” (37:17);
  • Copper is “the quintessential green metal” also facing a supply/demand imbalance. Also agricultural commodities, grains, fertilizers, nitrogen, and potash (41:26);
  • Mosaic (MOS) is one of the world’s largest phosphate and potash producers, and a stock the guest is particularly bullish on — it trades at just 5x earnings versus 25x at the peak (47:07);
  • An agricultural crisis could soon be upon us, leading to hoarding of supplies (49:58).

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Stock Picks to Play the Coming Inflation Slowdown (Szn 4, Ep 9)

With Lukasz Tomicki, LRT Capital Management

Lukasz Tomicki of LRT Capital rejoins the podcast to argue his (highly contrarian) case that inflation is due to slow and to provide stock picks that allow investors to take advantage of current dislocations in markets.

Content Highlights

  • Inflation will peak around mid-year and return to historic norms shortly thereafter (2:43);
  • Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on supply chains have certainly contributed to higher prices for commodities, but markets will adapt (7:01);
  • Another contrarian take: The Fed will successfully manage a soft landing (8:55);
  • “Russia is basically a gas station with nuclear weapons.” The U.S. and Europe can deal without Russian imports so this shouldn’t be a point of concern (14:20);
  • Stocks of two Brazilian companies that have been beaten down but have started to rebound… (20:05);
  • A company that has been directly impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an IT consulting firm with a large presence in Ukraine whose stock has predictably been beaten up but could offer huge returns (31:38);
  • The most likely outcome in Ukraine is for the military situation to grind to a stalemate (35:55);
  • A final idea: Buy the Polish stock market through the iShares MSCI Poland Capped ETF (EPOL) (39:50).

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Not intended as investment advice.

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Watch for the Bounce in Equities: Brent Kochuba, Spot Gamma (Szn 4, Ep 7)

Brent Kochuba of Spot Gamma joins the podcast to discuss his view that there will likely be an equities rally into the March 18 options expiration.

This podcast was recorded Wednesday afternoon, March 9, 2022, and made available to premium subscribers that same day. Become a premium subscriber today by visiting Contrarian.Supercast.com or our Substack. There are many benefits beyond getting podcasts a few days (or more) early and not having to deal with annoying ads or announcements.

Content Highlights

  • Stocks have been selling off with the Nasdaq now officially in a bear market. But the guest is short-term bullish for reasons that can be traced to market makers hedging counterparty risk (2:39);
  • What about all the uncertainty with Russia-Ukraine? (5:57);
  • Stocks are up since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, likely because markets were hedged going in due to Fed tightening concerns (9:28);
  • What to make of the March 9 rally? A brief primer on gamma, vanna, and charm aka delta decay (11:02);
  • Similar gamma squeezes caused rallies in the past around options expiry (15:20);
  • Background on the guest (21:31);
  • The hedges investors have put on ahead of the FOMC meeting next week should lead to more risk-off. The lower bound for the S&P 500 is 4,100 (24:36);
  • Recent days have seen a change in options flow: Nvidia (NVDA) and crypto names such as Coinbase (COIN) have benefited along with Amazon (AMZN) and the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) (26:50);
  • Liquidity is important and recent months have seen some of it leave the system (30:06).

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