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Growth in electricity use per unit of GDP will fall in half by 2030, but overall power use will rise at least 20 percent. Non-hydro renewable plants will contribute an unprecedented 33 percent of new generation built, yet fossil fuels will still be 79 percent of energy overall. Read More

As one of his last acts, outgoing Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson recommended reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as regulated utilities. Small wonder: While credit markets froze last year, utilities’ bond offerings rose 34 percent. Despite the worst recession in decades, only one US electric has cut its dividend. And credit rating upgrades far outnumber downgrades. Read More

If a company hasn’t come apart under what’s happened thus far, it isn’t likely to in 2009. That’s especially true now that credit conditions have been easing for several months and money is again flowing to more creditworthy borrowers. It’s also true that money is tight and the highly leveraged are still under a lot of financial pressure. But if a company hasn’t felt credit pressure the last year and a half, there isn’t a lot that can happen now to put it at risk. Read More

The bottom line is we’ve had far more of a “Janus Effect” than a January Effect this year. Like the two-faced god of antiquity, this market has shown us a fiercely optimistic side, as well as a phenomenally pessimistic one. And that’s been fully reflected in share prices, which literally continue to rocket up one day and power-dive the next. Read More

Much attention has been paid to the fact that 90-day Treasury bill yields are basically nil, and at times have slipped into negative territory on crushing demand for them. But even 30-year Treasuries are now yielding less than 3 percent. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury--the benchmark rate for income investments in normal times--has been scraping along at barely 2 percent. That’s less than half the high point of around 5.3 percent for the yield that was reached in mid-2007. Read More

Politics and economics are always strange bedfellows. At this juncture, it’s virtually inconceivable that a strongly Democratic Congress will fail to accede to the wishes of an incoming Democratic administration, especially one that includes so many former members. And the promised tax cuts in this package make it difficult for the Republican minority to oppose as well. Read More

Well managed, dominant companies use downturns to become more powerful. And that’s definitely what new Growth Portfolio addition Telefonica is up to. Read More