The ongoing banking crisis has spurred interest in the sentiment of banking leaders like Jamie Dimon and Brian Moynihan.
The respective CEOs of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America will soon offer their insights on the state of the financial system over the next 12 to 18 months. Both companies report earnings next week.
But Dimon is already out talking. And it wasn’t his views about banking that caught my eye.
It was a rather stunning argument about government and alternative energy initiatives.
This I didn’t see coming.
Seize the Land!!!
Jamie Dimon argued that the U.S. isn’t seeing enough investment in alternative energy systems like solar, wind, and other forms of carbon-free energy. His solution?
The U.S. should consider using eminent domain to “buy” property from American landholders… and then build a bunch of solar and wind farms.
It’s an “investment!”
“At the same time, permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way. We may even need to evoke [sic] eminent domain – we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives,” Dimon wrote.
If it worked for the highway system in the 1950s, then we can do the same here… right?
Landowners get “fair value” in dollars – which are losing value due to the economic policies of the U.S. government and Federal Reserve.
The government gets land – which is one of the best assets as a hedge against government-fueled currency inflation – to build these projects on.
And who makes money?
Well, the investment banks like JPMorgan Chase that finance the projects on the best land for these projects… and optimize the performance of those projects to boost revenue and profits.
What a great… free… FREE… FREE MARKET system, right?
The Free Market?
Is this a cat?
No. It’s not.
So, why are people arguing that government and central banks telling private businesses what to do – and seizing property to help banks make more money – is a free market?
Or that it’s capitalism?
When the government tells a private business what to do – when it drops its thumb on the scales and picks winners and losers – that’s not capitalism.
It’s Dirigisme.
And there’s no greater effort of this form of state control on economic and social matters than what we are seeing around energy policy.
Investing in Dirigisme
Now, I can sit here all day, and get into semantics.
But I don’t have political control. I’m only interested in the trend and what the heck to do in this situation.
So, let me just explain the goals of someone like Jamie Dimon’s eminent domain initiative.
For the U.S. to meet its transition goals by 2035, the nation needs to triple its copper output, quadruple its rhodium output, bring up its lithium production by 10x, and we need about 16 times the cobalt that we currently mine.
We’ve never doubled industrial production of any metal in a decade. We need to increase production by a factor of 3x to 16x depending on the commodity – for 14 different industrial metals.
This is non-negotiable.
You scientifically and economically cannot not reach the goals of the Biden Administration’s transition without increasing our mining to levels that would remove more dirt from the earth than a small asteroid.
So, let’s start with an easy one: Copper
Buy Copper
Already, research giant Commodity Insights forecasts that global demand for refined copper will increase from 23.5 Mt in 2019 to 31.1 Mt in 2030. That’s a roughly 40% increase in copper demand in a decade.
But that’s not even correct, because the electrification of everything requires DRAMATICALLY more copper than the previous forecasts. Remember, this is a conductor for everything including EVs, charging stations, power lines, and much more.
All while the U.S. dollar continues to slide.
And – even worse – we have a massive supply deficit for copper brewing around the world.
“We’re already forecasting major deficits in copper to 2030,” said Wood Mackenzie’s Vice President of Metals and Mining, Robin Griffin.
So, what do you think is going to happen here?
Copper is at $4.00.
In a world of tripled demand and shortfalls, where do you think this ends?
Does $8.00 copper sound conservative?
It does to me.
Next week, I’ll discuss ways to identify the best copper stocks for this ongoing transition to alternative energy.
We’ll likely start with Freeport McMoRan (FCX), a U.S.-based mining company, which operates in the copper and gold space.
Buckle up.
Final Thoughts
Right now, protesters in Paris have moved on to invade the French headquarters of BlackRock. This is seen as a great victory for the people after French socialist leaders ran out of other people’s money and raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Eight hundred meters away, the Banque De France is doing fine… untouched and nary a protestor. That makes no sense to me, until I realize that people don’t even know who controls the financial systems… their own government.
We’ll likely get to this point (storming banks/rioting/mass protest on the economy) in the U.S. when Illinois’ pension system finally breaks this decade, major California cities go bankrupt, or when Social Security ends up only paying 80% of benefits in 2032.
People will blame the banks and argue that it was capitalism’s fault. Yet, I’d have to ask them where all that capitalism was…
If only people understood what central banking was doing to them… inflation, wealth destruction, and more centralization of power in the future.
That’s how monetary policy works until it breaks.
To your wealth,
Garrett Baldwin
Market Momentum is Red
We’re in the red again after the job numbers last week. This is a very topsy-turvy market with a lot of movement. I’ve added back the hedge on our Tactical Wealth Investor, all while adding a brand-new position in the banking sector. In fact, the new edition had a great start today – and investors will be able to snap up shares on Monday at a deep bargain price. Become a member of Tactical Wealth Investor right here.
*This is for informational and educational purposes only. There is an inherent risk in trading, so trade at your own risk.
