Notes From An All-Over -- Literally All Over -- October 29, 2021

Wow, wow, wow -- it's hard to deny that Yahoo!News and guilty-by-association, Yahoo!Finance is anything but biased and bearish when reporting the news and Wall Street, respectively.

So, this is amazing. Had I not been strapped into the seat of the airplane on which I'm flying I might have might have ended up on the floor. Rick Newman, senior columnist, for Yahoo!Finance has a column titled, this week in Bidenomics: the cartoon presidency. It begins:

Have you met Leo from Peoria? If not, he’ll help you understand why Congress must salvage President Biden’s floundering social-welfare agenda and get America back on track.

Leo and his mom Linda are cartoon characters who play starring roles in Biden’s new “Build Back Better Framework.” You might be wondering what’s new about this framework, since Biden has been promising to “build back better” for nearly two years and Congress has been working on legislation since Biden took office in January.

The new part is that the latest framework is a lot smaller than Biden’s prior plans. Democrats with wafer-thin majorities in the House and Senate couldn’t pass Biden’s original request for $3.5 trillion in new spending on green energy and social programs, so Biden has slashed his ask down to about $1.8 trillion in new spending over a decade. The skinnier framework has a better chance of passing than the overstuffed package Biden started with, but it’s no shoo-in.

And so it goes.  

Cash is back: Exxon, Chevron amass cash as oil tops $80 / bbl -- The WSJ. One of many, many "feel-good" articles we're going to be seeing for the next twelve months. Congress wants Big Oil to "come clean" -- literally and figuratively. This would be a good time for Big Oil to tell Congress it will stop all new drilling for two years to make amends for all the emissions for which they have been responsible for the past fifty years. That will show them.

The two largest U.S. oil companies, Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM +0.21% and Chevron Corp. CVX +0.76% , reported on Friday their most profitable quarterly earnings since before the onset of the global pandemic. Exxon reported earnings of $6.8 billion, its best quarterly performance since 2017, and said it would launch a $10 billion share buyback program starting next year. Chevron reported $6 billion in net income, its best quarter since 2013, and said it generated $6.7 billion in free cash flow, its most ever.

The market: surprisingly, all three major US indices are showing green. Where's the profit taking? How can I afford to accumulate more shares in just about everything if there's not a pullback? Even AAPL looks surprisingly good. It's a $145-stock and unlikely to ever see $140 again. 

Independence: this reminds me, I need to post "Me and Bobby McGee.  I don't know if folks remember, but last year, the US was energy-independent. Well, that's history, and the US Congress is working overtime to make sure it stays that way.  Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. Feeling good was easy .... but that's history. Next to go: agriculture. High energy prices and fertilizer shortages now threaten the US farmer.

Me and Bobby McGee, The Highwaymen 

Telescoped: I have posted several times on the blog, because of Covid-19, 2020 - 2035 was telescoped into 2020 - 2025. Well, look at this. Suncor says they are going to reach the top end of their 2025 debt goals by 2021. Link here. 

Productivity: same link, Suncor says:

• breakevens will drop into the $20s in 2022; and,
• their Fort Hills project will run at 90% of nameplate capacity;