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Shorting the American Economy
Townhall.com ^ | December 5, 2015 | Steve Forbes

Posted on 12/05/2015 9:20:38 AM PST by Kaslin

Wealthy individuals including Tom Steyer and others are driving an effort to effectively "short sell" the American economy by attacking oil, natural gas and coal producers while touting the benefits of "green" energy resources that are still unreliable or are contributing minuscule amounts of power to our nation’s energy demands.

For those who are unfamiliar with investing, "shorting" a stock means that an investor who thinks a stock will go down in price will borrow shares of that stock from a brokerage firm and then sell those shares. If that stock does indeed go down, the speculator can buy it at a lower price and make money. Short-sellers love to see stocks they target suffer big declines in their prices.

"Shorting" is exactly the strategy of many well-funded, radical environmentalists who are targeting our traditional energy producers and our manufacturing base while supporting a "green energy" agenda that cannot survive in a free market without huge government subsidies — our tax dollars — to buttress them. The agenda of many of these wealthy activist donors is to target and eventually take down our fossil fuel industry. That is simply a recipe for disaster.

Sure, it sounds great to talk about conserving energy and reducing carbon and other emissions. But the inconvenient truth is that the United States is presently at a near 30-year low in carbon emissions. No wonder: our energy producers spent $90 billion to develop zero and low carbon technologies between 2000 and 2014.

The Tom Steyers of the world want to ignore that we all benefit from a healthy U.S. energy industry. Domestic energy production — oil and natural gas — is now saving the average U.S. household $360 annually. Further, our fossil fuel industry has been one of the few bright spots in our lagging economy. Oil and natural gas industry jobs increased 40 percent between 2007 and 2013 even while the U.S. economy weakened, declining three percent.

We enjoy enhanced national security through domestic energy production. This and reasonable U.S. energy prices promote job growth with some one hundred new manufacturing plants planned by 2018.

Yet those who work actively to stifle U.S. energy production are clearly getting the president's attention as well as leaders of the Democratic Party. We have watched the president in the waning months of his term empower agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, and others, to move forward with a plague of new environmental regulations governing carbon, methane and ozone emissions that will require oil, natural gas and coal producers to pay costly fines or shut down.

New ozone regulations imposed by the EPA, for example, would reduce GDP by nearly $2 trillion from 2017 to 2040 and could cost each U.S. household $840 per year. In addition, the White House and key Democrats have blocked the Keystone pipeline project and oppose oil exports — all of which could create thousands of good paying, blue collar jobs in rail, shipping and other industries.

It goes without saying that most of these new environmental regulations will not improve air quality or our quality of life in America — but they will drive up energy costs for all American households. It's time for the liberal billionaire's club to stop attacking our energy producers and work with Congress and the White House to develop sensible energy policies that don't shackle our dependable energy resources.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial
KEYWORDS: economiccrisis

1 posted on 12/05/2015 9:20:38 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

These characters should probably read up on the French revolution. Especially the part about how the aristocrats ended up.


2 posted on 12/05/2015 9:25:06 AM PST by dp0622 (..)
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To: Kaslin

I believe that I have recently read that Mr. Soros is buying coal plants for pennies on the dollar.


3 posted on 12/05/2015 9:28:50 AM PST by Dana1960
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To: Kaslin

I have been saying this for years. Geo Soros made most of his money shorting the GBP. And it was a good bet, I do not begrudge a speculator or gambler profiting from their risks and investments.

But the elites in Wash DC are now predominantly SHORT. They believe that money will flow now from where it is concentrated to where it is not. They hate America so wishing for its demise it not incoherent to them. Indeed it may be the most coherent thing they have done for quite a while. They want America to die. Their bets flower when America suffers a decline.

Easily 90% of stock market investors or specs do not understand this as it runs contrary to much of human nature. To profit from a short bet one has to first borrow the underlying, then sell it in the open market. The hope is that a further decline lowers the market price farther, and the “short” can buy back what they sold cheaper than they sold it for, then return it to the one who he borrowed it from.

One way to undermine the solidity of an entity is to saddle it with ever more debt. At some point, the debt can and will grow to a point where nobody believes the “borrower”, the short, will be able to buy back the shorted item. We got that.


4 posted on 12/05/2015 9:33:21 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (This space for rent.)
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To: Kaslin

green energy = fuzzy definition
social justice = fuzzy definition
climate change = fuzzy definition

I see a pattern here.


5 posted on 12/05/2015 10:02:33 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (American Jobs for American Workers.)
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To: Kaslin

I hope they’re naked shorting because I have a feeling the market could very well go on a tear. I’d like to see these guys get a good short squeeze.


6 posted on 12/05/2015 10:03:04 AM PST by Vic S
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To: VRW Conspirator

Ditto


7 posted on 12/05/2015 10:05:32 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder

If it were after me, Soros would have been deported long ago.


8 posted on 12/05/2015 10:07:31 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

Carbon is the basic building block for almost all complex organic molecules on Earth.

Recently, I read that almost all the carbon in all those organic molecules originally came from Earth’s atmosphere.

Can anyone here confirm that?

Another interesting factoid I recently acquired - Our current atmosphere contains about 400 parts-per-million of CO2.

If CO2 ever drops to 150 parts-per-million, almost every plant on Earth would die, which means almost every human being would die, too.


9 posted on 12/05/2015 12:31:48 PM PST by zeestephen
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To: Kaslin

Soros is nowhere near the top of the heap in supporting the liberal agenda.
Of the five wealthiest people on the planet, Obama supporters/promoters Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison of Oracle head the list.


10 posted on 12/05/2015 1:14:00 PM PST by Nero Germanicus
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To: zeestephen

The earth (and all planets in our system it seems) are created from hydrocarbons. Originally, there was no atmosphere. Hydrogen moving towards the surface through the mantle may have combined with oxygen molecules to create water. Which is why aquifers are found throughout the world, even under deserts. Even methane, which is CH4, is created in the mantle. Methane has been found on many planets and their moons. Natural Gas is 95.2% methane. Coal is the solid form and petroleum the liquid form.

A great book on the origins of the atmosphere and life on Earth is Dr Thomas Gold’s “Deep Hot Biosphere.” It also suggests the abiotic origins of oil. As far as I know, it’s the only complete theory on the Geological formation of the Earth. Excellent book.

You can learn a lot just reading the comments on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Hot-Biosphere-Fossil-Fuels/dp/0387952535/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449350308&sr=8-1&keywords=deep+hot+biosphere


11 posted on 12/05/2015 1:16:53 PM PST by Vic S
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To: Nero Germanicus

What makes you think those people are the wealthiest? Daniel Estulin (who studies the people at the top of the NWO) was shown a bank statement for the Krupp family (arms merchants in Germany since the 1500s and owners of ThyssenKrupp, shipbuilders and just about anything made out of steel) for 112 Trillion USD. He says that even the Rockefellers (David Rockefeller had a family trust set up in the 1970s for just under 1 trillion dollars) are chump change to the families at the top.

So, yes, Soros is not near the top.


12 posted on 12/05/2015 1:27:03 PM PST by Vic S
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To: Vic S

I looked at the Forbes Magazine List since the article we are commenting on was written by Steve Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/


13 posted on 12/05/2015 3:10:51 PM PST by Nero Germanicus
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To: Nero Germanicus
Don't forget Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim - once the richest man in the world, now #5.

He is the largest shareholder in the New York Times.

And Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder, now #4, owns the Washington Post, and sponsored fund raisers for Obama.

14 posted on 12/06/2015 2:20:01 PM PST by zeestephen
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To: Vic S

Thanks for your very helpful response.

I think you may have misunderstood my comments about CO2.

Since atmospheric CO2 is just a trace gas, I had always assumed that most of the carbon in organic molecules came from the Earth, drawn up by plant roots in some manner, like nitrogen.

Re: “Originally, there was no atmosphere.”

That surprises me, since our sun mostly formed from gaseous hydrogen.


15 posted on 12/06/2015 11:55:17 PM PST by zeestephen
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