Ferg's Finds

This is a short weekly email that covers a few things I’ve found interesting during the week.

Article

The World Is not Willing to Absorb the Overproduction Coming Out of China

Podcast/Video

Howard Mark's memos are now available in audio form: The Folly of Certainty

Quote(s)

"Success is when your kids want to be with you when they're adults."

- Paul Orfalea 

Tweet/Notes

I'm not usually a fan of these "self-help" trends, but this one on Thomas Sowell was a cracker, as it was the first time I came across a number of these quotes.

"The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is. He confuses it with feeling”

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”

Charts

I'm a fan of Bigmint's website for easy-to-consume graphs and infographics on energy, particularly coal.

Here is a great breakdown of Indian power consumption.

Something I'm Pondering

I’m pondering how much further Germany is going to push their Green dreams. This chart is wild in their “special funds” for climate and energy subsidies are nearly the whole 2023 budget.

Meanwhile, to circumvent tariffs, Chinese carmakers are building factories in Europe, and they certainly aren't selecting countries on their green credentials.

China’s Made-in-Europe EVs Pose New Threat to Region’s Carmakers 

The four countries selected are Spain, Poland, Hungary and Turkey. You can see the energy production by mix below. Spain has a mix of everything; Poland is straight coal, Hungary is nuclear and gas, while Turkey is coal, gas and hydro.

Not that this will matter much with the factories being used to assemble kits made in China. See below with vechicles “only 60-70%” pre-assembled in China.

In June, Italy’s antitrust authority fined DR Automobiles €6 million after determining it had illegally labeled vehicles from Chinese manufacturers including Chery as Italian-made. DR has said it planned to appeal, and that vehicles are only 60-70% pre-assembled in China.

Not a great time to be a European EV manufacturer.

I hope you’re all having a great week.

Cheers,

Ferg

P.S. My little family is having a great time in Montenegro (my wife's home country).