Energy

I’ve reached an age.  If you haven’t you will, and if you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  A few days ago, I walked into a restaurant and saw what was probably a middle-school student wearing a band t-shirt from my youth: The Cranberries.  I was immediately hit with the lyrics from their September 1994 (my sophomore year had just started) hit &ld

Growing up there was a guy in the neighborhood who worked in some form of construction.  He would often come home with copper wires, the type used overhead for transmitting electricity.  I was in elementary school, so he never told me why it was in his possession, but he would strip the wire coating off with a large knife in his back yard and recycle the copper.

Energy is foundational to the global economy.  Wars have been waged over it.  Debates about changes to sources have soured many family dinners over the recent years.  When production gets expensive, that acts like a brake on overall output since there are few viable substitutes; a larger share of consumers’ wallets is diverted to keep lights on and cars running.  In sh

Resort towns are known for their boom-and-bust cycles.  When financial crises materialize, ownership of second and third properties are the first to be sacrificed by people impacted in the downturn.  One resort town in Southern California, however, managed to escape the up portion of these cycles, pretty much falling from a peak in the 1960s.  Salton Sea was once a destination fo

Here we are just on the other side of the holiday season.  It’s that cold part of the year without the festive decorations.  A new calendar offers an excuse to consider just what lies ahead, but we’re too far from Valentine’s Day to run out and buy cards and candy.  That doesn’t mean we can write about the heart. 

Supplying beaches with sand is ill-advised.  For one thing, it is really tough to get out of the car’s carpet.  And have you seen gas prices?  At these levels, the last thing you need is extra weight forcing you to use more petrol as you motor toward the water.  But these are strange times.  We’re still emerging from the pandemic-related economic shutdown wh

Kermit the Frog told us decades ago that it wasn’t easy being green.  We’re only now starting to understand.  Coal is thought to have first been used for heat in Northern China 4,000 years ago.  This special rock could burn like a log, providing warmth in a cold part of the globe and likely the first time humans used fossil fuel.  Fast forward through various ind

For some people assuming more power drives their behavior.  History books are filled with leaders exhibiting this characteristic.  A few fairly recent examples come to mind.  Changes in both Russia and China have allowed leaders to stay longer than the initial arrangement, and those at the helm of both Hungary and the Philippines seized more authority during the coronavirus pande

Prices paid by Americans were unchanged in January 2019 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI).  This comprehensive look at inflation gained just 1.6 percent in the past twelve months.  Stripping out food and energy, the “core” CPI tally gained 0.2 percent to start the year and 2.2 percent on a year-over-year basis. 

First, happy Friday. You made it through another week and are likely to embark on a long weekend.  Monday is Memorial Day, so Atlas and the markets are closed.  Summer is about to unofficially begin and the driving season along with it.  Many Americans will find themselves at the petrol station filling up as they add miles to the odometer.