Monday we had the huge stock market rally on the heels of the news coming out of Europe over the weekend, which took us into the pre-open announcements in the US on Tuesday, which led into a continuation rally, at least at the open of trading on Tuesday (the open was the high). We are now back to the basics of the market, trading on uncertainty, prospects for a recession of undetermined length that will have a large impact on corporate earnings as well as a slew of economic data being released today and down the road. At this point, although it is the stock market that tends to get all of the headlines, the performance of the stock markets are secondary to the functioning of the credit markets and the hope for renewed willingness on the part of the banks to lend. Given the magnitude of the injection of liquidity by the central banks around the world in addition to all of the other moves being made, this should happen. On The Docket For Today Today we will be seeing the release of retail sales for September, wholesale prices for September, a read on the health of manufacturing activity in October, business inventories for August and the Fed's Beige Book that gives a read on economic activity. With the backwards looking nature of most of these numbers they are not all that important, but will have some impact. Health Of The Credit Markets In a continuing trend of the past couple of days, the LIBOR rate is slowly moving down, set this morning at 4.55%, down about 6bp from yesterday. Still very high, compared to the 2% range prior to the Lehman fallout, but it is definitely moving in the right direction. For those not familiar with LIBOR, it is the London Interbank Offered Rate and is the rate that many loans around the world, such as mortgage loans, are set off of. We continue to watch and listen. New addition on the blog: current stock and mortgage rate quotes on the right side midway down, brought to us by SaneBull. Let me know if you think this is good to have there.
No wonder then that the concept of so-called "clean coal" is appealing to both industries and governments. It holds the promise of clean electricity without the need for a massive change in infrastructure. In other words, it can be business as usual without the damaging emissions.
The problem with clean coal is that the technology is not yet a commercially proven solution. In a move likely to be mirrored around the world, the Australian government recently ditched its support for solar energy in favor of pursuing the development of clean coal technology. For any other form of energy supply still in development such backing from government would be seen as ludicrous.
This approach is dangerous. Solar and wind are proven energy generating technologies that are ready to be implemented NOW. Commercial production of these technologies could easily be ramped up to meet new energy demands and replace existing power stations. Ignoring these in favor of a method that does not yet exist and that may not even work is foolhardy.
If climate change is not addressed the economic losses alone are beyond imagination. They will make the amount of money saved by continuing with coal instead of solar power look like a drop in the ocean. Once the environmental damage is done, the cost of fixing the problem will be vastly more than preventing it in the first place. Add to this the fact that coal is still a finite resource and the foolishness of proceeding with clean coal becomes even clearer.
We have the technology and ability to implement solar and wind power on a large scale. It is time for political leaders of developed nations to make decisions based on what is good for the Earth and our future on it rather than pandering to the mining sector in an attempt to secure themselves another term in office.
Both Mary Bush & Roger Vanderlely are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.