The Market, Energy, And Political Page, Part 1, T+41 -- April 10, 2018

Legal stuff, part 1: this will be interesting. Everyone agrees: if a person commits a crime, and then hires a lawyer or has a lawyer appointed for him/her, the client-attorney communications are private, confidential, and privileged. However, if a person talks (conspires) with a lawyer to commit a crime, are those same client-attorney communications private, confidential, privileged? That may be settled law. I don't know. If it is not settled law, I have a hunch how the average American thinks about this, and I have a hunch how American lawyers think about this.

Legal stuff, part 2: I have a hunch that time-lines for political crimes are different than the time-lines of sexual peccadilloes. I am referring to the time-lines when lawyers are consulted.

WTI pricing: the tea leaves suggest that the price of oil is headed higher. I was surprised by the price of oil yesterday. Today, market opening: $64.75, up 2.10%. Quiet surprised. It's only April.

Tesla: still another week of waiting for the earnings call. Another Tesla recall: this time in China. Tesla's 5.3%/2025 uncallable bonds plunged the other day; recovering a bit today. [Later: looks like the bonds are surging.]

Weather: this spring is certainly dragging out -- but we will be complaining about the hot Texas summer soon enough.

Obamacare: Trump administration allows states to "narrow" Obamacare -- WSJ. Obamacare will die on the vine; simply fade away. Sort of like "New Coke," which lasted from 1985 to 2002. And that will be it. No sane president will ever tackle US health care again.

Syria: the talk here at local Starbucks jibes with what Scott Adams said yesterday, and my hunch is that those talking about Syria in Starbucks this morning have not read or listened to Scott Adams in the past 48 hours.