Congratulations on your success. Your path has been your own and your outside the box thinking is refreshing and powerful. No doubt, you have enjoyed it and yet surprised yourself and others with it over the years.

The reason for my contact is your insight into the inevitability of solar energy costs going to nearly zero. I agree. You clearly understand that this transition is massive to every aspect of our lives - and yet very few "get it".

The next 15-40 years will see a transition that will be founded on virtually free and abundant energy. This abundant, almost zero cost energy will accelerate the effects of medical advances. It will transform our resource sectors from agriculture to mining to chemicals.

It will see manufacturing shift from factories and mass production to local 3D printed products - perhaps even food. It will mean AI and automation... And yes, it will mean that human labor will not be as needed or as valuable. Our relationship to work, income, wealth, etc... will have to change.?

Labor and the nature of work will be a huge challenge. Globalization has decoupled the industrial and wealth agendas from national needs that were characteristic of colonial times.

No longer do US companies like Ford pay higher wages to their employees so that they can afford their products. So, real wages have been effectively flat since the mid '70's. Despite productivity gains, wages go nowhere.

If the market alone were to determine the future of labor, we would simply have more "surplus population" as was defined in the periods?before the 20th?century.

In our world, governments will not survive such a trend. This fact is already responsible for Brexit, Trump, Sanders, Greece...?

I believe that acceleration of the adoption of renewable energy, particularly solar, and the gains achieved from lower cost energy as well as the egalitarian nature of energy wealth afforded by solar is economically and sociologically key to a more peaceful and productive transition to the future.

Massive wealth and power concentrations are threatened by the economic realities of renewables and the distribution of wealth and power therefrom. While they will not go down without a fight, certainly slowing adoption where possible and seeking to replicate their monopolies in a renewable world, they cannot win.

Short of wars and physical devastation in attempts to maintain the "scarcity" that capitalism thrives upon, they cannot prevent the more egalitarian future that abundant, low-cost energy is bringing.

So, thanks for hanging in on my email. I see that you are a free thinking, "somewhat" non-conformist. You get this.

Best wishes and thanks for your insight and your work.

Best regards,

Tom
Marion, Massachusetts

Thanks for your input, Tom.
John Thomas

Your article on ?The Ten Baggers in Solar Energy? is the best, well informed, educated piece of literature I have read for a long time.

Thank you for your honest and well informed article. I am going to be 86 years YOUNG in coming November and appreciate a simple jewel in this money chasing jungle.

I would like to follow you and learn more new stuff in this fast going and changing world. Thank you.

Lisa
Ontario, Canada

I can't tell you how much I enjoy your blog. It is the first place I go every morning and I miss you on the weekends.

I stumbled upon your site about 4 months ago and have been addicted to it since day one. I really appreciate not only your insight into the markets, but also your global and historical perspectives.

All of this served up with your great sense of humor makes it a must read! Thanks for all your hard work.

Chip

My husband wanted me to tell you that, as a retired Marine, he understands completely. ?The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in war. ?Gratefully, for us, you have done a lot of sweating over the years! ?

Cheryl
Oregon

Thanks for the swift answer about the (UVXY). I got 7% profit in one day, so I'll close. What about the (VXX)? Can that be held for longer?

As for your question about Europe, it is not doing good. The reasons why are so simple. Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece have very different economies and different business cycles than Germany, France, and Belgium.

Sweden never joined the euro currency because we knew that our business cycle is not the same as Germany and France, Belgium and some other country I have forgotten about.

Hence we knew we needed our own central bank and our own currency to counterbalance these differences. That?s exactly what Spain, Italy, and Greece need.

The problem in the EU can never be solved with QE because Greece, Italy and Spain need the Euro to always be much, much weaker than Germany, which is a net beneficiary of the Euro.

Do you know what happened in Spain after they adopted the Euro? The cost of a beer went from ???2-3 to ?7-8 in many places. As a tourist, it's no longer cheap to go to Spain because it's almost the same price as in Sweden now, and?it used to be half price!! Imagine how bad that is for a tourist-based country.

 

Regards,

Per
Sweden

John Thomas responds: Yes, Per, the IPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) can be held for longer because I expect an imminent volatility (VIX) spike, and the cost of the contango with a 1X ETF will be much lower.