Money – Sandpiper Editorial

One of the pitfalls of the isolation thingy is the “What day is it?” thingy. Just realised yesterday was Friday (sorry…)

Remember that proverbial rainy day? The one which people used to put aside for, just in case? Okay, well it’s here now, and a lot of people have been caught short because not only did they not think to put something aside, or just didn’t bother, but may have even been lulled into the false assumption that a rainy day just wasn’t on their horizon.

But it so is. That is the nature of rainy days and right now it’s bucketing down and a lot of people have been caught without an umbrella.

Sure, no one saw COVID-19 coming, but some have been caught so short it will take years for them to recover, assuming they ever do, and I am beginning to hear the word “victim” popping up more and more in news reports and talkback programs, and I am not necessarily talking about those who contracted coronavirus. Mostly it financial victims but the word is being bandied around all over the place and I am beginning to suspect there will be “victims” popping up who really aren’t, except maybe in their own minds. Only some of them will be genuine.

The financial victims will be those small business owners who have had to shut down their only source of income indefinitely, the people who lost their jobs because their workplace had to either cut staff and hours, or close their doors altogether, those low income earners/welfare recipients who live hand to mouth because they just don’t have enough left over after paying for food and other necessities to put anything aside, and those who, for some reason, don’t qualify for government support. Most people have rent or mortgages, and the stress levels among them trying to meet those obligations is rising.

My sympathies are with those now having to deal with being in that position, but tends to peter out a bit regarding those who have over-extended themselves to live in an upwardly-mobile bubble. They took on a mortgage for a nice house with a sought-after address they couldn’t really afford but would sort of scrape by so long as nothing went wrong. Went further into debt for brand new cars and other accessories, and life has revolved around their credit cards for so long they have forgotten what making do with what they have actually means. Others opted for a pricy rental in an expensive area that realistically was beyond their means but fed their aspirations. They could also scrape by (just) on a wing and prayer so long as nothing went wrong. Well yes, they lived precariously on credit card debt too and perhaps stuck their fingers in their ears while going “lalalalala” whenever the inkling of a rainy day entered their heads (mustn’t think about that). But then something did go wrong. Very badly horribly wrong, and it all came crashing down. I don’t deny for a moment these people are dealing with genuine through-the-ceiling stress levels right now, but I’m not sure they are victims of the current situation because I think financial catastrophe was on the cards for them anyway, coronavirus or no.

Genuine victims here though, are those in countries where the poorest of their populations have had to leave their villages and go out into fields or hills and in some cases, even up into the trees, in order to self isolate because staying at home in a one-room abode shared with a lot of other people was not really an option. They are existing without facilities, with minimal food, water and shelter and near to no medical assistance should they become ill. These people have had their entire lives made much worse by this pandemic. Those I am less inclined to see as victims however, are people who are safely ensconced in spacious homes with all the comforts, oodles of money in the bank, swimming pools, gadgetry, televisions, plenty of food and clean water, supermarkets and basically everything they could possibly need to keep themselves entertained. Yet oddly (well, maybe not) these are the ones bemoaning their current stay-at-home situation. They can’t go out for coffee, they can’t go to the beach, they can’t pop around to friends’ places for drinks etc. These are the ones feeling “victimised” by coronavirus. Barely a peep from those people experiencing genuine hardship and/or social isolation and loneliness, just a lot of noise from Instagrammers, celebrities, wannabes and those so accustomed to having the lifestyle they want handed to them on a platter that they cannot deal with the sudden restrictions to their vacuous existence. Unsurprisingly, they are often the ones found flouting the social distancing directives as well.

But are they victims? No. There are a lot of victims out there but it’s not these guys.

Anyway, this is the rainy day that was always on the cards and with luck, we have all learned something from it. Hopefully the lesson has been to make preparations for the next one in case it comes down in cats and dogs like it has this time, and to get a handle on who classifies as a victim and who just doesn’t fit the bill, because I’m starting to see a lot of “victims” emerging who aren’t. Perhaps we might learn that we don’t have to have the best of everything like, right now. Previous generations worked and saved for those things and were prepared to wait until they could afford them. Start a mortgage on a starter house and move up from there. A reliable secondhand car will do you just fine until you can afford that shiny new wiz-bang model. If you’re any kind of celebrity, you should have at least a couple of million still sitting in your bank account so shut up, you are not in financial dire straits and if you have a home, a supermarket, a phone and social media, you are not really doing it hard at all, hence you are not a victim.

But as for the rest of us? Just organise that umbrella, okay?

For some, creating an “environmental” market is pretty much a license to print money, and this is what a small clique of money men did when they created a market called Global Warming, which would bring the money rolling in via the launch of their associated product; Carbon Credits.

Climate Change is hot news right now, so they’ve engineered it well, what with workers and students holding Climate Strikes in a futile effort to force world governments to “do something” about climate change/global warming, but as has been discussed in a previous post, much of what happens on Earth, temperature wise, is governed by solar activity and no government, no matter how committed, can control the Sun. They can do their bit to encourage recycling, to reduce landfill and to penalise blatant polluters of our air, waterways and the land itself, but for as long as the Sun shines, the temperature and the climate on Earth will do its own seasonal thing.

Which leads to the question; why do we need a global emissions trading scheme? The short answer is, we don’t, but green does mean money and anything bearing the “Environmental” stamp has the potential to generate a lot of it.

Hence the Carbon Bubble. Emissions Trading is a market-based scheme where the Carbon Market tracks emissions under cap-and-trade schemes. It is a vastly overpriced scheme where Carbon Credits are disguised as an “environmental plan” and is a virtual repeat of the commodities market. It will allow world governments to mandate rises in pricing as it will place a limit (cap) on coal plants and natural gas distributors on the amount of carbon emissions (greenhouse gases) they are permitted to produce per annum. Should they generate beyond their allotment, they will be able to purchase “allocations”, also known as credits, from other companies that have an excess of credits due to having produced fewer emissions. Which all sounds well and good, except the cap will be regularly lowered, which will result in the availability of carbon credits getting scarcer, and that’s not so good. Basically, cap-and-trade is a scheme that is carbon tax structured, and which will be profitable only for those private interests who will collect the revenue.

In 2004, an $18 billion firm named Generation Investment Management (GIM) was founded by Al Gore, founder and current Chair of The Climate Reality Project. The co-founder is former Goldman Sachs Asset Manager, David Blood. All about “sustainably focused” investments, the company raised a profit of almost $218 million between 2008 and 2011. Headquartered in London, GIM now manages assets of around $22 billion and as of 2019, has raised $1 billion for its latest private equity fund. The third and largest of its similar funds is Generation IM Sustainable Solutions Fund III, which plans to invest $50 million and $150 million each in companies aiding the health of the planet and/or individuals. The demand to invest in a sustainable manner is growing, especially throughout Europe, despite the fact that the definition of what that actually means can vary (a definition that regulators in Europe want to look at more closely). Basically though, its focus in on “sustainable investing” and demonstrating the long-term commercial benefits. Or more plainly, it’s all about the money. David Blood is part of initial working group that brought about the United Nations Principal of Responsible Investment (UNPRI), which relates principally to the interests of “environmental, corporate and social governance”, which means it nurtures the longtime interests of financial markets and investors etc.

In 2005, The EU Emission Trading Scheme was introduced and Goldman Sachs participated in this scheme from its inception as a market maker in carbon credits.

The year 2006 saw the release of Al Gore’s controversial book, An Inconvenient Truth which created worldwide concern (fear) about climate change and global warming, and did much to boost the carbon investment markets, which was good news for Goldman Sachs. In the same year, Al Gore’s film of the same name, was released by Participant Media, a company owned by wealthy businessman, Jeffrey Skoll, first President of eBay and friend of Al Gore. Goldman Sachs is eBay’s investment bank. Anyway, by 2008, Al Gore was in a position to invest $35 million into hedge funds and private partnerships through a company named Capricorn Investment Group, a Palo Alto company also founded by Jeffrey Skoll.

But after the initial panic, perhaps the shock wore off and the market stalled because in 2017, Al Gore released a sequel to his film. It didn’t create anywhere near the impact of its predecessor though, which may be an inkling that more people are beginning to see through the ruse. Because that’s what it is really.

Come 2018 and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) introduced a new index created by Euronext, the largest stock exchange in Europe (6th largest in the world) with roots that go back centuries, apparently. The index, Euronext CDP Environmental Finance is exclusively licensed to Goldman Sachs. Carbon Credits are currently trading at $11 to $20 per credit.

In September 2019, Goldman Sachs released a report which claimed “rising temperatures would lead to changing disease patterns, more intense and longer lasting heatwaves, more destructive weather events and pressure on the availability of water for drinking and agriculture.” It also warns that natural ecosystems would be damaged and human health, food and drinking systems would all come under pressure as well. Hence Goldman Sachs’ Environmental Policy Framework. They are an underwriter for “Green Bonds” and into developing an Environmental Commodities Market. Their Centre for Environmental Markets is where they partner with other corporations, academic institutions and non-governmental organisations to “unlock” lucrative environmental markets.

Well, it stands to reason those who stand to make the most money out of carbon trading will do whatever it takes to keep the ball rolling, as there’s so much money to be made. But not by you and me.

So it’s never really been about “saving” the planet. It’s always been about wealth and how much of it could be raked in by a few savvy money men who trawled through all things “environmental” until they hit on a way to create a whole new enterprise, which they then launched upon the world and turned to their own advantage…at our expense. “Green” is really lucrative for some.

But not us.

Tag: Money

Green means Money. For some.