Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Is Carbon the New Vietnam?

No burning draft cards, but the students are marching against carbon.  Last month Stanford said it would no longer invest any of its $89 billion endowment in coal firms.  Once upon a time King Coal employed 250,000 miners - coal employment has fallen by two-thirds.  This reduction is independent of output.  Most coal comes from strip mines that require fewer workers.  Efficiency matches on.

Students and Stanford will not shut down the whole coal industry, but basic economics, natural gas, and the science of global warming are sure going to make a huge dent.  Shares of Peabody Energy, the United States third largest coal firm, are down four-fifths from their high in June 2008.

Investors don't like Vietnams.

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