The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+21 --- Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Is anyone making money? One would think with WTI flirting with $50 that refineries would be doing very, very well. Think again. This caught me by surprise.

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Chevrolet Volt Short-Circuited

This story is being re-posted. For the archives. Example of selective memory. First, the screenshot:

From the story:

“I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line,” Obama announced to a cheering crowd of United Auto Workers activists. “Even though Secret Service wouldn’t let me drive it. But I liked sitting in it. It was nice. I’ll bet it drives real good. And five years from now when I’m not president anymore, I’ll buy one and drive it myself.”

 "I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line." I got to get inside .... ? What a doofus. Anyone thinking the president of the US would ever drive a Volt -- maybe a Tesla, but a Volt?

Re-posting:

GM will shut down production of Chevrolet Cruz (small car); the Volt (EV); and, several others. Stories everywhere; one link here. It appears four plants in the US will be closed, and one in Ottawa, Canada. But the number of employees -- it appears 3,300 blue collar workers at the one plant in Canada; and 2,600 employees spread across four factories in the US.

US EV sales are tracked here.

I watched ABC report this story; I don't watch evening news but I made an exception tonight to watch the Mars landing story. After listening to the ABC story I went to the internet story regarding GM. What ABC said was accurate. What ABC left out was huge. 14,000 jobs lost; about 5,900 in North America meaning that the vast majority of employees are overseas (perhaps China?). Of the 5,900 in North America, as noted above, 3,300 in one factory in Ottawa, whereas 2,600 employees spread across four plants in the US. From the ABC I had the distinct impression 14,000 GM employees in the US were being cut just before Christmas. Not even close. This is a huge GM story. It's a huge business story. It's not a huge American job story -- GM may in fact hire 2,600 new employees for their US plants. The Bolt was unveiled in January, 2016. The Volt is a hybrid, first commercial production in 2010. The Volt was showing its age and absolutely not competitive against the Toyota Prius.

Wow, the GM story, as I said earlier: his is a huge GM story. It's a huge business story. It's not a huge American job story.