Generational Dynamics World View News

[vincecate]

GUINEA ARRESTED ALL CHINESE ,THREATENS TO DEPORT ALL OF THEM IF GUINEANS DON'T RETURN HOME SAFELY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWQcM0Y2IGw

African nations, US decry racism against blacks in China
https://apnews.com/776dec4ec1d06779a34ecc5c4863d427

[John]

** 20-Apr-2020 World View: Oil prices crashing with some going negative

The price of "West Texas Intermediate" (WTI) crude oil, which is
produced by shale oil drillers, fell 40% in the last few hours
to $11 per barrel.

Typical prices in the past have been $50-70 per barrel of oil. It was
falling before the pandemic, but the pandemic accelerated the fall.

What's most startling is that some oil prices have gone negative.
During the early hours of Monday morning, prices for Western Canadian
Select oil fell to $-0.15 per barrel.

The reason that a barrel of oil is worth less than nothing is
because there's such a huge oil glut in the world that there's no
place left to store it. Land-based oil repositories around the
world, and oil tankers traveling in circles at sea, are all loaded
to capacity.

Prices of other forms of energy are also turning negative. In
Germany, prices for wind and solar power turned negative on Sunday
afternoon to -26 euros per megawatt-hour.

As I described in my article yesterday, a global financial panic and
crash is caused by a chain reaction of missed debt payments and
bankruptcies. This oil price crash will force a number of shale oil
producers into bankruptcies.

This sudden, rapid crash of oil prices, even to the extent of
prices going negative because of lack of storage space,
is the kind of thing that could possibly trigger a general
panic and crash.

-- US oil prices crash to their lowest level in over 21 years as
storage run
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/20/coronav ... s-out.html
(CNBC, 20-Apr-2020)

-- Negative Crude?
https://global-macro-monitor.com/2020/0 ... ery-crude/
(Global Macro Monitor, 20-Apr-2020)

-- NWE power prices fall into negative territory for two consecutive days
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/mark ... utive-days
(S&P Global, 20-Apr-2020)

[John]

** 20-Apr-2020 World View: China and Africa

> GUINEA ARRESTED ALL CHINESE ,THREATENS TO DEPORT ALL OF THEM IF
> GUINEANS DON'T RETURN HOME SAFELY
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWQcM0Y2IGw

> African nations, US decry racism against blacks in China
> https://apnews.com/776dec4ec1d06779a34ecc5c4863d427

I gather that you're closely following issues between China and
Africa. Are you seeing just local spats like these, or are you seeing
some larger conflict growing between Africa and China?

[vincecate]

I gather that you're closely following issues between China and
Africa. Are you seeing just local spats like these, or are you seeing
some larger conflict growing between Africa and China?

It just seems a number of places are angry at China and something could trigger something...

[John]

** 20-Apr-2020 World View: Anger at Chinese

> It just seems a number of places are angry at China and something
> could trigger something...

Most of my life, I've been hearing and reading how Africans hate "the
ugly American." Now it's the turn of "the ugly Chinese."
Schadenfreude.

[tim]

April is the month of bad things.

1. The Lincoln Assassination: April 15, 1865
2. The San Francisco Earthquake: April 18, 1906
3. The Sinking of the Titanic: April 15, 1912
4. The Ludlow Massacre: April 20, 1914
5. The Hillsborough Disaster: April 15, 1989
6. The Waco Siege ends: April 19, 1993
7. The Oklahoma City Bombing: April 19, 1995
8. The Columbine High School Massacre: April 20, 1999
9. The Virginia Tech Shooting: April 16, 2007
10. The Deepwater Horizon Disaster: April 20, 2010
11. The Boston Marathon Bombing: April 15, 2013
12. The West Fertilizer Company Explosion: April 17, 2013
13. The Notre Dame Cathedral Fire: April 15, 2019

14. Crude Oil falls to -$55.90: April 20th, 2020

[John]

** 20-Apr-2020 World View: Oil prices continue crashing

Oil prices have continued to crash all day, and WTI crude prices are
now negative, mainly because of storage problems, as described above.

These prices are for oil to be delivered in May on the futures market.

Notes from an al-Jazeera report:

In the last week, half the oil rigs in Texas have gone out of
business, from over 800 oil rigs to about 400.

The oversupply is 35 million barrels a day. Saudi Arabia and Russia
recently agreed to cut supply by 10 million barrels a day, which is
too small a cut.

Oil produced in other countries are not yet as badly affected because
the storage issues aren't as bad as in the US.

Al-Jazeera just reported that oil is now at $-40 per barrel. If
that's correct, then it looks like a real disaster in the making, as
it implies that oil producers are going to have oil on their hands
with no place to store it.

However, another analyst has come on with a soothing, calming voice,
saying that the US government has some storage locations available,
and can buy up the excess oil. This soothing analyst says that the
May contract is closing today, and the June contract opens tomorrow,
and prices will return to $+20.

[shoshin]

Didn't President Art of the Deal get Putin and MBS to prop up the price of oil (after taking credit for lower gas prices, then realizing US producers weren't happy)? Oh well...

[Trevor]

I still remember back when people screamed: "We''re running out of oil! We're going to see $200, $300 a barrel!" Between the price war and the plummeting demand. . . well, I still didn't expect it to actually go negative.

From what I've been seeing, we're not just going to go back to normal and bounce back like nothing happened the way I saw claimed all over social media a few weeks ago. I'm not convinced this is going to be the kind of pandemic 1918 was, but my prediction the economic devastation will be worse seems to be holding up for the moment.

[John]

** 20-Apr-2020 World View: Art of the Deal

> Didn't President Art of the Deal get Putin and MBS to prop up the
> price of oil (after taking credit for lower gas prices, then
> realizing US producers weren't happy)? Oh well...

Joe and Hunter Biden would negotiate a better deal, as they have in
the past.