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The Green Bubble February 13, 2021, 8:24 AM·36 min read Yes, I am going to talk about bubbles again, but once again about one specific bubble: the bubble in anything (supposedly) green, particularly if it can be tied to the war against climate change. Like many of the asset-price bubbles of our current moment, this one is not entirely irrational. Not only are green assets being “revalued” (to use a term that implies rather more calculation than is really the case) in the light of the gener...

Welcome to the Capital Note, a newsletter about business, finance, and economics. On the menu today: NASDAQ’s mission creep, COVID and cars, Washington State’s (proposed) wealth tax, France’s wind-power follies, and the Piggly Wiggly short squeeze. To sign up for the Capital Note, follow this link. NASDAQ’s Quota Regime A month or two I wrote an article describing how NASDAQ was looking to introduce quotas into the boardroom. I quoted from a the Wall Street Journal pi...

On the menu today: Biden’s Green Agenda (update), changing the way regulations are made (for the worse), inflation (again), and Australia’s solar rooftops.

Fun and GameStop Andrew Stuttaford © Nick Zieminski/Reuters Outside a GameStop store in New York City, January 27, 2021. National Review’s Daniel Tenreiro has been doing such good work on GameStop (see links below) that I was going to ignore that particular dumpster fire and concentrate on the latestpronouncements by Larry Fink. Fink is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world with $8.7 trillion under management. Fink is also an oligarch’...

Welcome to the Capital Note, a newsletter about business, finance, and economics. On the menu today: Biden’s economic plan, Yellen’s debt dilemma, and deficits in a zero-interest-rate world. CARES Act Redux We ran an editorial this morning on Biden’s stimulus plan, which looks more like a structural economic-reform package than an emergency-spending bill. The proposal ...

(Lucas Jackson/Reuters) Welcome to the Capital Note, a newsletter about business, finance, and economics. On the menu today: The Big Board and China, vaccine distribution, Elon Musk, California, and a very expensive tweet, 0 percent mortgages (for 20 years), and fractional trading. To sign up for the Capital Note, follow this link. With power, unsurprisingly, draining away from a Trump administration just weeks away from its conclusion, it’s not particularly surprising to read that the New Yo...

Senator Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., December 10, 2020 (Alex Wong/Reuters) Welcome to the Capital Note, a newsletter about business, finance, and economics. On the menu today: Relief at last (plus added waste), the wisdom (or not) of lockdowns, bubble watch, chicken sandwich mania, and an antitrust refresher. Relief, the States, and Restraining the Fed So, a “stimulus” package has finally been passed, although it is better understo...

The Capital Letter: Week of December 14 Andrew Stuttaford © Jonathan Ernst/Reuters So, as I write (12:31 p.m.), it’s still wait and see when it comes to a stimulus package. Stocks slipped from record highs on Friday as lawmakers rushed to bridge differences on additional coronavirus stimulus measures. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 150 points, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite traded 0.1% lower. All three indexes touched new intraday highs in m...

(Stringer/Reuters) Welcome to the Capital Note, a newsletter about business, finance, and economics. On the menu today: foreign investment in China, a massive cyberattack, the boost to small banks from PPP, and a new critique of economic theory. Foreign Investors Pile into China Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the developed world seemed ready to wean itself off Chinese exports. The Chinese Communist Party’s obfuscation of the outbreak accentuated the risk of doing business with authoritarian ...

The Capital Letter: Week of December 7 Andrew Stuttaford © Carlo Allegri/Reuters The NASDAQ market site displays an AirBnb sign featuring CEO Brian Chesky on their billboard on the day of the companys IPO in Times Square in New York City, December 10, 2020. Yes, U.S. markets have been a little weaker in the last few days, and as I write (11:55 a.m.), are down again this morning, but signs of a bubble aren’t too difficult to find. There is, for example, the continuing demand...