The Market, Energy, Politcal Page, T+24 -- June 24, 2018

The Turks go to the polls today. Let's see, they must be about eight hours ahead of us -- so, I wonder who ABC has projected as the winner? I just checked. No early results yet. [Later: Erdogan wins. Again. Surprise. Surprise. I'm shocked. Shocked. I laughed when the US mainstream media says Erdogan was "on the ropes," suggesting the election was going to be close. Yes, like the "close" elections in Venezuela.]

The Economist should probably change its name to The Socialist. Of course that would kill sales, but the fact that capitalists "buy" the magazine suggest they may not be reading it. At least not reading it critically.  The current issue features the likely next president of Mexico, suggesting he is "Mexico's answer to Donald Trump." So, two years from now we can see how socialism in Mexico plays out in comparison to unadulterated capitalism in the US.

And for the archives: Time magazine has a "fake" picture on its current issue -- really, really fake -- when caught red-handed, Time admitted it was "fake" but "stood by the story." No shame.

A pessimist might write the following headline, but an optimist might write "whether opportunities abound?" For me, "America First" offers huge opportunities, many risks. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. For the rest of the world, it's an open book test.

Speaking of which: do the benefits of global warming -- if it exists -- outweigh the risks?

Back to opportunities. Here's one, from oilprice.com:

The June 12 Trump-Kim summit in Singapore has had an overall positive effect on the oil industry, cooling down expectations about the imminence of a major conflict driven by the reckless behavior of leading political figures.

Yet behind numerous geopolitical consequences, the discussion of which has taken up most of the media space, the summit also gave rise to smaller, regional ones. One of such is the resurgence of the Russia – North Korea – South Korea gas pipeline, which it seems is back on the agenda of both Moscow and Seoul. Gazprom’s admission that negotiations have been relaunched upon South Korea’s request is a harbinger of significant things to come.

The Russia-Korea gas pipeline has been on the taps for more than 20 years.

It was first raised in 1995 on the back of East Siberian gas fields being gradually brought onstream – even though the idea eventually evolved into the 38 BCm Power of Siberia project, the possibility of traditionally LNG-reliant Korea having its first onshore gas pipeline was flaunted regularly.

The pipeline was supposed to pass start in the Russian city Vladivostok, then swerve towards North Korea, reaching Seoul in the end. It was never doubted that from the Russian side it would be Gazprom supplying the gas, since it has an export monopoly, from the South Korean side KOGAS and LG were mentioned among potential participants.

Huge. Kim Jong-Un is already getting ready to sent President Trump a "thank you" letter.