Notes From Everywhere -- Saturday Morning Edition -- July 10, 2021

Reading: five best books on WASPs. By Michael Knox Beran, the author of the forthcoming book WASPS: The Splendors and Miseries of an American Aristocracy." Link here. Of the five, I have read Henry James Bostonians -- okay, I read the first chapter or so, and then quit. I would be interested in trying again. Of the five, I would be most interested in reading Joseph Alsop's I've Seen The Best Of It. Second on the list I would like to read: Louis Auchincloss' The Rector of Justin. 

Cuisine: referred by a reader. Link here. Practically in our backyard, north of Dallas, TX, the "best and only Filipino lechon spot in Texas."

".... a little place that served lechon, a whole-pig preparation method common in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and other areas once colonized by Spain.

Lechon is a rarity in Texas, but there on her phone was the photo evidence of a place called ORC Filipino Asian/American BBQ, a weekend-only spot north of Dallas in Collin County, near the shores of Lake Lavon.

There were images of whole pigs on bamboo spits rotating over a fire."

Recommendation: wait at least a month for this to die down. The lines will be long and incredibly hot for the next few summer months. 

Lechon beats ropa vieja. But had I not been studying Spanish with Sophia on Duolingo, I would never have tranaslated ropa vieja on my own. LOL. Quite the coincidence. I was going to do a piece on ropa vieja last night but decided most readers would not care, and then a reader sent me the story on lechon, posted above.

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Back To Energy

Recovery: rising oil prices unlikely to kill the economic recovery. Link here to The WSJ.

Bullish: large investment banks, think Goldman Sachs, calling for $80 - $100 oil. Link here. 

US frackers: show restraint as oil tops $70. Link here to The WSJ. But note this, which I suggested a long, long time ago. I guess they're reading the blog.

The result is that shale drillers, which in the past have played the role of the oil world’s swing producer by quickly increasing output to meet demand, are largely standing pat for now.

Inventory: US crude stocks are declining at lightning speed. Link here.

Global warming? US oil is going bananas. US government asking for more OPEC supply. Natural gas demand is rocking. More fossil fuel supply release short term is the only answer -- energy / fuel consumers don't care about "net-zero" charts. Greta is going nuts. Link here. 

Pacific Northwest: pipeline developments shake up gas inflows, spot gas prices. Link to S&P Global Platts. 

The GTN, Kingsgate-Stanfield, Ore., spread could close early next week as the Pacific Northwest receives more gas from West Canada, replacing some supply from the Rockies.

TC Energy's Gas Transmission Northwest will increase capacity through Kingsgate, the pipeline's entry point for gas flowing into the Pacific Northwest from West Canada, to 2.25 Bcf/d starting July 10, according to a notice posted to the pipeline's website July 9.

Flow Past Kingsgate capacity was previously capped at 2.05 Bcf/d, representing a potential increase of around 200 MMcf/d for Canada-to-Pacific Northwest flows. Historically, shippers have been quick to respond to increases in operational capacity at this point. Full operational capacity for Flow Past Kingsgate is around 2.75 Bcf/d.

During the most recent phase of GTN pipeline maintenance work, flows from the Rockies ramped up to close the gap in regional inflows.

[Some time ago we talked about these pipelines. Apparently everything took care of itself.]

California:

• shutting down their nuclear plants; 
• California is planning to shut down its last nuclear plant;
• from a carbon-free electricity standpoint, this is the equivalent of tearing down every wind turbine in the state, or half of the state's solar panels
• direct to Breakthrough here;
  
• some California cities banning new natural gas hook-ups;
• out-of-state coal mines providing California electricity shut down;
• fracking banned (not that it would have worked in California anyway);
• the state relying on wind, solar, and hydroelectricity
• and now, hydroelectricity looks as dependable as wind and solar
• Californians being asked to voluntarily cut water usage by 15% -- sure, that will work;
• Governor Newsom can't mandate this: he's facing a recall election.

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Money

Wells Fargo: abruptly (and unexpectedly?) shuts all existing personal lines of credit. Elizabeth Warren goes nuts. LOL. She needs to read the history, how this all evolved. Good, bad, indifferent; deserved or not, it's the government that forced Wells Fargo to take this step. The worst: folks who took out these personal loans now have to pay them back making minimum monthly payments. Say what? Pay back these loans? I though the money was free.

Roth: a little-known "bac-door" trick for boosting your Roth contributions. Link to The WSJ.

If business titan Peter Thiel’s $5 billion tax-free individual retirement account has you jealous, here’s a way to build a pot of tax-free retirement savings without paying much in taxes: A mega-backdoor Roth conversion. 

Over the past two decades, Mr. Thiel, a founder of PayPal Holdings, PYPL turned less than $2000 of pre-IPO shares costing less than a penny each into $5 billion, a gain that accrued tax-free in his Roth IRA. 

If the 53-year-old refrains from taking withdrawals until age 59 ½ or older, that money can be shielded from tax forever.

Repeating: anyone can do this. Even if you have only $2,000 a year to invest in a Roth IRA, one can invest $1,000 into solid blue chip stocks and then take the other $2,000 and buy penny stocks and watch them closely, trading nimbly. Every year for thirty years while working. 

How the rich stay rich: buy, borrow, die. Living off their paper wealth. Link to The Wall Street Journal.