Locator: 10010NBT.
"Next Big Thing" -- linked at the sidebar to the right.
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The next big thing. Although it's been around forever.
Now, PayPal will expand BNPL significantly.
Without question, to stay relevant, MC, Visa, Discover, et al will have to offer buy now pay later options.
Reminder: Apple, Inc. offers BNPL.
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BNPL
A reader sent me a link to a story regarding buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans.
My not-ready-for-prime-time response:
Home Shopping Network or whatever those 24/7 marketing shows are called, have been doing this for decades: "four easy payments." Sometimes, "three easy payments."
Late night television ads, same thing: "four easy payments."
I only get my cars serviced at Firestone. Their policy is no interest whatsoever on any charge using their Firestone credit card (which I have) if the charge for service is more than a couple hundred bucks (I forgot the threshold) and is paid off within six months. So, same thing as BNPL. So, my car servicing costs are not put on any credit card the Big Banks would love to have.
USAA -- car insurance -- same things -- I get a new bill every year or every six months -- I forget -- but I never have to pay it in one big payment. I'm given four months to pay off the six month premium. I generally pay it off in three months and have no car insurance payments for three months. This is another big bill that I don't put on any credit card that the Big Banks would love to have.
Colleges and universities generally allow folks to pay tuition payments over several months; car insurance policies, noted above, are definitely BNPL.
When BNPL is used occasionally, it's wonderful, but the risk is that millennials will use this for everything and gradually their debt will increase significantly and they won't notice it until too late. But I'm not sure how that's any different than maxing out all your credit cards with 24% APR. Having said that, I am not aware of any Big Bank credit card that sends you a reminder that explicitly says that if you don't pay the full amount by today, "we are going to charge you 24% interest tomorrow."
My hunch is that BNPL plans have very explicit notifications in a timely manner.
But all this talk about BNPL, it seems, we've had it forever.
What I would like to see is for Apple Computers to go to a subscription service on their computers. I believe some telephone plans already do that: you pay a monthly subscription price for your smartphone and it's automatically upgraded every two years. Obviously over time the monthly subscription price goes up but it's slight and generally not notices.
When all of sudden I see all these stories about the dangers of BNPL, my antennae go up, asking who will most be hurt by BNPL? Unless they do the same thing, M/C, Visa, Discover, etc., could be the big losers. There is a reason the major credit card companies don't offer BNPL when they get 24% APR on delayed payments.
One gets the feeling these "news stories" are in fact press releases faxed / e-mailed to media outlets who are too lazy to do their own reporting / investigative reporting and simply re-print the press release as a news story.
Whether this all blows up in a year or not, it's obviously something that consumers want.
I think it's brilliant: the big companies, like AAPL and AMZN (who doesn't offer this yet) are willing to fund this themselves since they have deep pockets. I know that when I buy my next AAPL computer (probably next spring, the new MacBook Air) I will gladly pay for it over four months, interest-free.
Crashed and burned: Phil.
California: from "green cash" to "green crash."
Headwinds, perfect storm:
Hot: Spain. Link here. Heatwave drives gas-fired generation to highest rate since 2009.
Spain used to be the poster child for renewable energy. What happened?
Hot: next Wednesday and Thursday, June 22 - June 23, 2022, the US will experience incredibly hot temperatures.
Hot: Russia's largest gas field is on fire after pipe bursts. Link here to Charles Kennedy, so you know it's a big story.
Weekly EIA petroleum report, link here. So many data points.
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Back to the Bakken
NDIC GIS map server: still not up and running. No new information from NDIC.
WTI: $117.10
Active rigs: 39 or thereabouts.
Four new permits, #39024 - #39027, inclusive:
Six permits renewed:
Two permits canceled:
One producing well (a DUC) reported as completed:
TSLA: at open, down 4%; breaks below $670; trading at $669.01. Holy carbon, Batman! TSLA plummets. Down $46, could break below $655. I assume Cathie Wood is buying more. RIVN? Down 8%. But look at this: ELMS UP 200%. Later: TSLA now down over 9%, broke below $635 but according to a reader, Tesla is best in class. What does this mean for all the rest? Near the market close: down almost 10%. Trading at $633.
Coal: I'm still amazed, after all these years, folks still do not realize that EVs run on coal.
Coal? Probably not, but one never knows. Probably not in my lifetime but certainly my grandchildren could see the Brits going back to coal. Back to the future. Back to Britain. Link here. Great Britain is "back-pedaling" on its climate pledges.
Coal: link here.
SecEnergy: time to buy an EV.
Tesla: link here.
See linked article for writer's thoughts on these price increases.
Most important twitter post on shale today? Link here.
Links to follow, but the screenshot says it all.
Corroboration was not needed, but this corroborates the Ford story in spaces, as my dad would say. This is, in a word: devastating.
EVs: how are the EVs doing pre-market?
RIVN leads us to AMZN:
Ford:
US Open! Open!
WTI: plunges to $113
Commentary:
Most important twitter post on shale today? Link here.
Freeport: bigger story than most thought one week ago
Baby formula:
Top story yesterday: Ford
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Back to the Bakken
Far Side: link here.
WTI: $113.60
Active rigs: 37 or thereabouts
Thursday, June 16, 2022: 24 for the month, 162 for the quarter, 322 for the year
RBN Energy: global market impacts of the Freeport LNG outage, part 2.
Freeport LNG is expected to be offline for an extended period following last week’s explosion and fire at the export terminal, leaving the global gas market even more undersupplied than it already was. The outage cuts U.S. export capacity by about 2 Bcf/d at a time when Europe is still taking in huge volumes of LNG to offset declines in Russian supplies and bolster storage ahead of winter. This is all happening as another large exporting nation, Australia, is facing a critical winter energy crisis of its own and South American demand is headed toward its seasonal high, straining an already tight market. Today’s RBN blog continues our series about the ongoing Freeport outage, this time looking at the impact to the global gas and LNG markets.
Conclusion:
Ninety days takes the full-facility outage at Freeport LNG into September, meaning that no Freeport LNG cargoes will be available during this summer, with Asia and Latin America potentially feeling the loss more strongly than Europe. For Latin America, that’s because, as we noted earlier, it’s peak demand season and when U.S. cargoes would typically head south; for Asia, it’s because of Freeport-specific contracts and also rising seasonal demand. We were already seeing a drop in U.S. LNG sendout to Europe, which accounted for about 75% of total U.S. exports from January through April, but that dropped to 65% in May and appeared to be declining further this month even prior to the outage.
Beyond September, the brunt of the impact could swing back to Europe, which could find itself in a precarious position heading into winter as it seeks to secure LNG cargoes in the face of an ongoing war that has put it at odds with what has been its largest gas supplier.
