Comments on Bill James' articles RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/bill-james/articles http://seekingalpha.com/article/179760-what-is-the-connection-between-oil-and-gdp-growth?source=feed#comment-822336 822336 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:50:30 -0500 1. People who foresee this invest in oil related assets/products.
2. Companies who foresee this whose key input is oil seek operational or financial hedges.
3. As oil price increases particular firms change behaviour:
3.a. Firms in the business of fuel efficiency technology are incentivised through the oil price signal to invest in enhanced products, and through commercialisation, enhance overall oil/energy efficiency.
3.b. Firms in the business of alternative fuel production/power generation invest more and commercialise more efficient (relatively lower cost) technologies.
3.c. Firms in the business of oil exploration and production find ways and means of profiting from previously unviable oil fields.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/179760-what-is-the-connection-between-oil-and-gdp-growth?source=feed#comment-821858 821858 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:15:12 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/179760-what-is-the-connection-between-oil-and-gdp-growth?source=feed#comment-821801 821801 jack]]> Sat, 26 Dec 2009 09:14:15 -0500 think of peter minuit, manhattan, 1624.
> jack]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/179760-what-is-the-connection-between-oil-and-gdp-growth?source=feed#comment-821259 821259 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:14:16 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/179760-what-is-the-connection-between-oil-and-gdp-growth?source=feed#comment-821247 821247 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 09:40:15 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/179760-what-is-the-connection-between-oil-and-gdp-growth?source=feed#comment-820437 820437 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:26:04 -0500 ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/179760-what-is-the-connection-between-oil-and-gdp-growth?source=feed#comment-820396 820396 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:02:49 -0500
That no longer applies. Oil is a global market, and the US has shrinking influence.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-642257 642257 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:34:37 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-639231 639231 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:01:57 -0400
In Santa Cruz, many of us have the vision of a very unobtrusive PRT system that is quick, quiet, and blends in well with the surroundings, something that its critics can come to tolerate and ignore, and its fans will view as friendly and ideally "right-sized" for this area. Although I like the idea of a solar powered system, I'm not sure that one that "powered itself" through attached solar panels would remain that unobtrusive or unobjectionable to the many people we need to win over here. Perhaps a brilliant design that integrates solar into the guideway will address my fears and silence potential critics. But I think it might be more practical to have a solar farm feeding the grid near town; rather than run directly from the solar array, the PRT system could draw grid power, which would be offset by the solar array's contribution to the grid. I think this would solve a number of potential problems that might beset a PRT system with panel-attached guideways. Just a thought.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-639222 639222 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:39:08 -0400
PRT's potential to connect and promote traffic between economic enclaves should be very attractive to local chambers of commerce, not to mention political organizations and non-profits that depend upon tax revenues generated by business. It would behoove areas with high tourist volume to provide PRT-based "horizontal elevator" service for their entire region, so that the cost in time and dollars for a tourist to visit any part of town from any other part would be minimized. It's also possible that a PRT car could run in "guided tour mode," taking the passenger around to various parts of town along with relevant narration. During the tour, passengers could disembark from one car, explore the local area for a while, and get on another PRT car later, which would resume the tour narration the previous pausing point.

Bill, I really appreciate that you collected all this interesting information and advice in one place. I especially like your "times better" chart. I was also glad to see so many thoughtful and insightful comments in reply. Good job, all!

James Anderson Merritt
Santa Cruz CA]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-635999 635999 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:41:38 -0400
The consequences of not doing it will forever resonate in the history books as the generation that gave away our national treasure. I am 60 years old and my last stand in this life is to see America again as proud producer of quality products that will benefit all of our citizens and hopefully also be purchased by the developing countries as a model of eco-efficiency and skill in what we do best.

And what is that elusive American ingenuity best at doing ? Exactly what really needs to be done and doing it with private capital and not Government handouts. I am not hopeful that all the money our new President is handing out in Grants for green energy projects is going to do anything other than fund the construction of a few manufacturing plants that may have nothing to manufacture? What we all know, innately as Americans, is that the Government cannot run a business, and this is obvious to even the children who are going to bear the burden of our desperate attempts to make everything less severe by spending trillions of dollars that we don't have and never will be able to pay back!

Why not take the trillions we spend on Iraq and Afghanistan (no return on this investment) and put that money into American infrastructure? I mean a "new kind of infrastructure" - let's go UP above all the existing roads we have already built and paid for. Let's add another layer of progress using existing proven technology to make it happen. Let's use our great financial banking system to encourage private investors to fund this concept and build new private enterprise companies to manage and sell the idea to the public and make a profit on doing it. Let's employ millions of Americans who are out of work now in the auto industry, and anyone who can contribute, to build the next layer of the U.S. Highway system - the next "level" in what surely has to be obvious to every person that I know.

It's called PRT and it's not talked about much. Other more politically motivated policies and lobbyists tend to prevail in Washington as usual. So, what is PRT you ask? It's short for "Personal Rapid Transit". Why PRT - why not ? It can be built above existing U.S. Highways & Interstate Highways only 14 ft. above grade and using existing magnetic & other electric hybrid rail propulsion, combined with solar panels mounted above the whole route, you can have a zero carbon transit system that can be built starting now!

Why would we want to do this? Because it's just not practical for all of us to drive across the U.S. unless you have a Jack Kerouac complex or you like the idea of playing Easy Rider! Let's face it, some may enjoy this and you can still drive that route on the road below you, but the majority of folks would probably opt for the elevated route via computer controlled private cabins. You see this idea has all the potential that the airlines once had......you can buy first class or coach for your trip. You can take your pets (or your cattle) with you because there will be special cargo modules that will go to your destination. Isn't this like Amtrak you say? Not even close - this is infrastructure married to the internet in it's pure form. This is the Next Big Thing!

Dig it, you have private enterprise funding different segments to the Trans Continental PRT, and competing with one another on fares, comfort, special offers, club cars, limousine cars, etc. Just think of the good old fashioned competition here and all of this creates more damn jobs than the WPA en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and don't we need a program like this right now?

Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided almost 8 million jobs. Between 2009 and 2015 we could provide almost five times that (or 40 million jobs) if the program got started? Remember, this is NOT a Government funded program - it's up to the banks and the venture capitalists to roll their own on this one!

Let's put America back to Work NOW!

Don Harmon
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-633289 633289 Excellent article & discussion! Not what I usually find googling > PRT. And the "Physical-Internet" is wonderful...dead on.]]> Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:20:49 -0400

On 2008 Jul 27 09:52 AM gdstark wrote:

> Excellent article & discussion! Not what I usually find googling
> PRT. And the "Physical-Internet" is wonderful...dead on.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-513941 513941 Fri, 22 May 2009 03:04:18 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-513940 513940 Fri, 22 May 2009 03:03:08 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-363206 363206 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:28:00 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/84966-gas-lines-coming-this-fall?source=feed#comment-339615 339615 Sun, 28 Dec 2008 08:01:50 -0500
Even as Oil hit $147 in early July you could go into any gas station and fill up at will. This crisi was just a spectulative bubble. It was never about supply/demand imbalance.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-330682 330682 Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:02:16 -0500
Also, Jpod style, suspended rail systems would be cheap enough to run lines out to rural whistlestops instead of maintaining rural roadways in peak condition. This could allow delivery of fresh fruits, vegetables, milk and eggs directly to urban markets without using trucks or drivers. This kind of "milk run" was one of the original functions of electric trolleys at the turn of the last century.

PRT rail systems could be cheaper to install per-mile than maintaining asphalt roadways in rural areas. In California rural counties are already abandoning some asphalt roads and converting them to gravel due to maintenance costs. This isn't going to get better with the fall of Wall Street and the loss of property tax revenues.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-296258 296258 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:50:45 -0500 and yeah go with the rail project.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-296224 296224 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:03:32 -0500 andrewatkin3.googlepag...

beyond the fact that that picture is from the inside of a sports car. not from a rail tech piece.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-296220 296220 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:59:23 -0500 In colorado they have a bus system that actually works if your trying to get to and from the grociery store or w/e you can actually use the busses there.
There FREE and they run like every 3 or 5 minutes or something.
Forget what city it was that I spent 2 weeks at, but mass transit for the highest congested areas will be the way to go...

let me guess like at ASU? ... I need some sleep before I look at it all and give you an opinion on it.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-296212 296212 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:47:55 -0500 ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-296205 296205 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:42:05 -0500
or are you trying to recruit me for.. specifically what?]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-296202 296202 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:41:24 -0500 ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-296186 296186 Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:28:30 -0500
I get your point.

I SHOULD go and major in engineering and do the world a favor, and not major in finance right since I have no idea what I want to do anyways?]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/80763-deregulate-transportation-to-beat-100-mpg?source=feed#comment-234260 234260 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:18:22 -0400
My point is that we may have cars that appear to get 100mpg, but they really wont when you add in alll of the many many hidden costs. The key is to make a car that really truly does get 100mpg, over the life of the vehicle, including the hidden costs. We are nowhere near that, and there is nothing on the drawing board that would bring us there. (Until we reduce the weight of the vehicle down to less than 200 lbs...)]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/83532-personal-rapid-transit-preempting-the-need-for-oil-in-urban-transport?source=feed#comment-215517 215517 Invest in solar and wind collection manufacturing companies I would differ on this point. PRT should be developed as energy source agnostic. I happen to believe the source will be almost entirely nuclear. You can't rely on solar on those cloudy days without needless investment in batteries. Ken Gow said... > Let’s not panic about oil prices. "Cheap" oil may have reached a peak but new sources of expensive oil (including bio fuels, What!? I thought we finally put the nail in the biofuels coffin. If ever there was an idea that didn't pass basic high school physics muster, it's biofuels. I missed all your other points. btw, here's my own vision for the PRT future... http://www.PRTProject.com gary]]> Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:52:39 -0400
> Invest in solar and wind collection manufacturing companies

I would differ on this point. PRT should be developed as energy source agnostic. I happen to believe the source will be almost entirely nuclear. You can't rely on solar on those cloudy days without needless investment in batteries.

Ken Gow said...
> Let’s not panic about oil prices. "Cheap" oil may have reached a peak but new sources of expensive oil (including bio fuels,

What!? I thought we finally put the nail in the biofuels coffin. If ever there was an idea that didn't pass basic high school physics muster, it's biofuels. I missed all your other points.

btw, here's my own vision for the PRT future...

www.PRTProject.com

gary]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/84966-gas-lines-coming-this-fall?source=feed#comment-209206 209206 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:37:49 -0400 www.jpods.com/JPods/01...
and source, netoilexports.blogspot.../

You will see that since mid-2004 we plateaued. It is very difficult to manipulate this. If it could be manipulated, then we should be even more desperate to end food distribution's dependence on oil. If you want security, plant a garden, organize your neighborhood and help re-tool transportation.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/84966-gas-lines-coming-this-fall?source=feed#comment-209158 209158 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:44:51 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/84966-gas-lines-coming-this-fall?source=feed#comment-209154 209154 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:41:11 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/84966-gas-lines-coming-this-fall?source=feed#comment-209021 209021 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:07:26 -0400