Copperhead.

Copperhead Snake

I recently had an investment in the largest copper mining company ... along with Carl Ichan. But, after realizing what was happening with the strategic future of this metal, I took my money and ran ... as did Ichan. What prompted my decision?

Copper is primarily used to transmit electricity and information, in minting coinage, in plumbing piping, and in architectural roofing, gutters and other features. Now two of these big uses of copper are on the way out ... transmitting information and household plumbing piping. Increasingly voice and data are transmitted using silicon ... glass fibers. And plastic (PVC) piping is the new and more economical way to move household water. One lone last smaller trend, in micro-electronics, silver and gold are replacing copper because of better ductility and electrical transmission qualities.

So, in the long run, these two major uses of copper will gradually be phased out. Add to this the fact that, in the US, it costs more money to mint a copper penny than it is worth, suggesting that this use may also soon disappear ... maybe even worldwide.

Of course, like often happens on Wall Street, after I (and Ican) sold this copper stock, the price went up ... as did the price of copper! But, like Bernard Baruch once said when asked how he had made so much money, he replied, "I always sold too soon."

L.I.C.

These L.I.C. initials stand for Luddite-in-Chief, an appropriate appellative for our President. This is because Barack Obama had, during his campaign, sworn to put the U.S. coal industry out of business (the major supplier of energy to our electric utilities). He has stopped all new drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. He has also extended the moratorium of drilling for oil off of Florida and all along the East coast of the U.S. … and, of course, in ANWR, Alaska. (Oil is used as our second biggest source of energy for generating electricity.) And there has not been a start to the construction of a single nuclear power plant under his two-year watch … despite his feeble oratory to the contrary. And the building of even ordinary power plants has become dificult under this new administration.

And now this great nation is beginning to suffer the consequences of this Presidential hostility with rolling blackouts (see: U.S. Blackouts). This is not the posture that one would or should expect for the leader of our great and exceptional country. It feels like the United States is on its way to becoming Iraq during the regime of Saddam Hussein … when electricity was only available for a few hours a day.

In the meantime, you would think that, if Obama can finally witness his Christian devotions, that he could also avow his patriotism and encourage our country better to develop our energy resources and electricity production.