BeeLine: Things That Make You Go Hmmm-March 22, 2023 Edition

Climate Change

Greta Thunberg is famous for making bold predictions about the demise of the planet due to climate change.

Time actually named her its Person of the Year in 2019.

Credit: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/greta-thunberg-time-s-2019-person-year-n1099396

This is what she tweeted out in 2018.

It seems that she just deleted that tweet for some reason.

Source: https://nypost.com/2023/03/15/greta-thunberg-reportedly-deletes-grim-2018-tweet-about-climate-change/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter

Does anyone remember this headline from 10 years ago?

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2425775/Climate-scientists-told-cover-fact-Earths-temperature-risen-15-years.html

For context, here is a graph showing the % of days that US Historical Climatological Weather Stations had temperatures above 90 degrees for the last 100 years.

Credit: https://twitter.com/TonyClimate/status/1636138937575149568

How come it was much warmer in the 1930's and 1940's than today when there were much fewer fossil fuels used at that time?

Global fossil fuel consumption has increased 8-fold since 1950 and doubled since 1980.

It doesn't look like the trend has ceased over the last five years either.

Hmmmmm.

Interest Rates

We are hearing increasing rumors that the federal government is considering having the FDIC guarantee all bank deposits

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-studies-how-guarantee-all-18-trillion-us-bank-deposits

The FDIC currently only guarantees the first $250,000 that any depositor has in an FDIC insured bank.

It has already guaranteed all deposits in Silicon Valley Bank even though 97% of the deposits were over the FDIC limit.

How much did the FDIC have in assets to cover the guarantee BEFORE Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were taken over?

$125 billion.

The last I checked $125 billion is a tad below $18 trillion.

Do you see a problem?

In the meantime, the current yield on a 6 month Treasury bill is almost 5% even after the drop in interest rates since SVB went under.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/US6M

How much is Chase bank paying its depositors?

Has it increased what they pay in interest to try to keep deposits in the bank?

If you qualify for its "relationship rates" you can get .02% this week on your savings account. Otherwise you get .01% on most accounts.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-studies-how-guarantee-all-18-trillion-us-bank-deposits

In the meantime, Chase can pay its depositors .02%, take that money and buy a 6-month treasury bill for 5% or park it at the Federal Reserve for an even shorter term and earn 4.65% at current rates.

That is a pretty sweet deal for Chase.

The problem for the banks is that more and more depositors are figuring out the game that is being played as interest rates have risen.

Does anyone believe this will end well when those are the underlying economics in all of this?

Hmmmmm.

Excess Deaths in Germany

Credit: https://twitter.com/goddeketal/status/1636121394009309186

Draw your own conclusions on this data.

However, has there ever been a pandemic in human history where deaths went up a year into the pandemic after the introduction of new treatments and vaccines targeted at the disease? Then overall deaths went up more in the second year?

Hmmmm.

Electric Vehicles in Quebec

The province of Quebec in Canada passed legislation in 2018 that phases out the sale of all new fossil fuel vehicles there by 2030.

Volkswagen was looking for a site in Canada to manufacture electric car batteries.

It recently rejected Quebec as a possible location for the plant due to concerns by VW about the province's about tp provide a consistent supply of electricity to power the new plant.

If you don't have enough electricity to power an electric battery plant how are you going to have enough electricity to power all of those electric cars?

No worries.

Those progressive liberals have seven years to figure out how this is going to work.

Hmmmm.

Bachelorette Parties

This article made me go Hmmmm twice.

Source: https://www.thebach.com/blog/bach-app-special-report

Nashville and Scottsdale are both more popular venues than Las Vegas for bachelorette parties?

In fact, there are twice as many bachelorette parties in Nashville as Las Vegas.

The average cost of a bachelorette party is $10,800.

$1,200 per person spent on airfare, lodging, entertainment and food times an average of 9 girls attending.

We have come a long ways from my experience where the bridal party split up after the rehearsal party at separate bars and had a few drinks with the future bride and groom.

Bear in mind these are many of the same people today who claim they cannot afford to pay their student loan debt.

Triple Hmmmm!