Itsonlymoney

ConocoPhillips: More Than Just a Great Stock

Why do you think COP does not currently trade in correlation to XOM and CVX?

Is Valero a Better Buy than Exxon Mobil?

As American consumers cut back in response to the climbing prices of most commodities, the slack is being absorbed by rising demand in foreign markets. We are witnessing a reallocation of natural resources away from our shores toward more dynamic economies. This rebalancing is overdue since we have long ago become wasteful and complacent with respect to our bounty.

It is unfortunate that this shift in resources is flowing to countries who appear to be emulating our inefficient ways. We need more public transport, they are headlong into building individual transport. In some sense, every new car on China's streets makes it harder for us to keep ours rolling as usual. This is not necessarily a bad thing since having too many cars on the road is just as bad as not having enough.

If we act now, this country will adjust to these new conditions without undo hardship. The upside of wastefulness is that we can enjoy efficiency gains and still meet our needs. Precious time has been wasted by a failure of leadership unmatched in living memory. This failure is not only political, but includes our board rooms and CEO offices as well.

In Light of Peak Oil, Financial Diversification Is a Bad Idea

The problem is not the price of oil. Oil is an amazing store of energy with potential way beyond our current usages. The problem is that oil has been undervalued for so long that this revaluation is calamitous.

The good news is that we have easy efficiency gains out there for the taking and they will create jobs in the process. Bill Clinton said that the efficiency gains from IT were responsible for the booming economy under his term. Maybe the next administration will be wise enough to encourage the retrofitting of America's infrastructure and prosper as well.