The theme of this year’s Agora Financial Investment Symposium is “View From the Peak.” The title alludes to Peak Oil, as well as peak everything else. We have 6.5 billion people on Earth, with more arriving every day. A fortunate few hundred million of us already live in the developed world. And now several billion other souls are working their way out of poverty, and that takes resources. So the world demand for everything (energy, steel, cement, food, water, you name it) is rising.
July 25th, 2008 | Byron King | 2 comments | ContinuedArchive for Byron King
Byron King currently serves as an attorney in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1981 and is a cum laude graduate of Harvard University. Byron is also co-editor of Outstanding Investments.
Rare Earth Elements: A Beginner’s Guide
Rare earth elements consist of a group of 15 metals. In most cases and usage patterns in the modern economy, these 15 elements are oxides. The names of the elements are Cerium, Dysprosium, Erbium, Europium, Gadolinium, Holmium, Lanthanum, Lutetium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Samarium, Terbium, Thulium, Ytterbium, and Yttrium. The bulk of the world’s supply of rare earth elements comes from the mineral bastnasite. Bastnasite is a mixed lanthanide fluoro-carbonate mineral.
June 19th, 2008 | Byron King | 5 comments | Continued
Money Lending: Rotten to the Core
It is apparent that much of the old way of doing business – particularly in the realm of money lending – was rotten to the core. In my view, it begins with the U.S. dollar itself. The dollar has been steadily deteriorating in value for decades, so inflationary expectations are part of the worldwide consciousness. That is, just because of the long-term decline in the value of the dollar, most people expect most things to go up in price most of the time.
April 9th, 2008 | Byron King | 4 comments | Continued
U.S. Population Grows Due to Immigration as Infrastructure Weakens
Why is it that the so-called “immigration debate” in the United States is often tied up with terms of race and seldom tied into the discussion of depleting resources and declining infrastructure?
February 13th, 2008 | Byron King | 18 comments | Continued
Price of Oil Doesn’t Appear to be Affecting Worldwide Demand
Houston investment banker Matt Simmons likes to say about oil, “Supply does not know demand.” That is, in a world of Peak Oil output is going to be whatever it is. New supply is always in a race with inexorable depletion, and depletion will always win. It’s just a matter of time.
Matt Simmons or no, [...]
Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin Home to Significant Hydrocarbon Resources
Canada is a very big place. In fact, Canada is the second largest country in the world, after Russia. Canada is quite a bit larger than the U.S. lower 48 states, but many people in the U.S. do not realize that because of the way most maps distort scales at higher latitudes. Even just half [...]
January 24th, 2008 | Byron King | 0 comments | Continued
Kaydon (NYSE: KDN) Set to Quadruple Wind Energy Sales Over 3 Years
Let’s take a look at a small-cap play that sells precision-engineered products into the demanding market for energy resource exploitation, where — it is not too strong to say — design or mechanical failure is simply not an option. The company also sells components to the wind energy industry. The company’s name is Kaydon Corp. [...]
December 5th, 2007 | Byron King | 1 comment | Continued
Geothermal Power vs. Conventional Power Sources
I just returned from a trip to California, where I attended a conference called the Geothermal Finance and Investment Summit. The conference was in San Jose, at the south end of San Francisco Bay. Why San Jose? San Jose is in the heart of Silicon Valley. And Silicon Valley is, as [...]
November 29th, 2007 | Byron King | 10 comments | Continued
Geothermal Power in Iceland is A Model for United States
When it comes to harnessing geothermal power, the go-to place on the planet right now is the Republic of Iceland. Yes, Iceland. It is a large island at high latitude, composed mostly of dense basalt lava flows. Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which provides that country with an almost direct link to the primordial heat [...]
October 31st, 2007 | Byron King | 1 comment | Continued
The Oil Price & the Fed Rate Cut Spell a Bull Market for Energy Stocks & Precious Metals
The oil price has climbed to a record-high $82 per barrel. Why is the price rising?
The Peak Oil paradigm is beginning to gain traction. I have taken quite a bit of heat for this view – from many quarters – but I have stood with the concept through thick and thin.
And now, if you still [...]
