Any coincidence that the market is having a push day and oil's flat? I think we got trapped again in the world of oil and it is making little sense to me. I think it's all about the idea that we are out of things to trade off, so we default to oil as a barometer of what's good or bad.
One thing is for certain: We still don't see any articles in the mainstream press about how anything is better in business. I read so many articles about how this is peaking or that is peaking or this is going down or that is crumbling and I think, jeez, who are these people talking to?
I was with a group of CFOs the other night and almost everyone predicted that things are about to get better and that rates would be going higher because of it.
But these opinions never seem to get to out into the mainstream, which remains trapped in a narrative that unless Trump gets his way on tax reform and repatriation, it's all a castle in the sand.
That's a totally wrong way to look at it. The press should be far more focused on the idea of how companies are expanding because they know they can appeal to -- or not fear surprises from -- Washington.
Yes, there could be trade issues, we know that. Yes, we could be at risk of a war with North Korea or tariffs on Germany or a Mexican wall showdown, but the deregulation that is going on and the lack of enforcement of current rules are changing the atmosphere in a more pro-business way.
That's a tough story for most mainstream press people to write because you sound like such a jerk if you talk about the positives of not enforcing laws that you might like if you are a journalist.
But that's the way it is. If you don't factor in the gains from deregulation then you are missing, for example, what could have happened to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) if the Dakota Access pipeline were shut down. You could be missing the loan growth that we are seeing in Texas and North and South Carolina and Tennessee and Georgia. You may not see all of the $47 billion in liquefied natural gas plants that are being built with plans for more because the FERC isn't going to stand in the way of new development. That's what the CEOs of the major regional banks in these areas tell me.
But, again, if you are a journalist who hates fossil fuels, you don't want to write those stories if you can avoid them.
It's just important to keep pointing out that the executive orders I have seen do create more jobs here even if you hate how and where they are created and who is creating them.
Maybe that's what's missing among the endless sea of negative pieces I read every day.
