Fly, my flunkies

 By John Cole

Raise your hand

 By Mike Luckovich

The AI bank run has started

 A video by Mark Tilbury.  Private credit, which has funded the AI spending boom, is in trouble.

Is this the AI-bust?

 On Friday, AI shares dropped sharply on Wall Street (and elsewhere, too).  

The chart of Nasdaq looks like this, and the chart formation over the last couple of months is typical of the beginning of a market correction.  Is this the beginning of the bursting of the AI-bubble?

We shall see!  

Reminder:  nothing written here should be construed as financial advice.

Coal's share needs to fall faster

 Chart from Our World in Data

In 2014, coal supplied 44.4% of world electricity.  By 2025 this had fallen to 33%.  This is too slow — a mere 1% a year.  We need to cut the percentage coming from coal to zero within 10 years, which translates into a 3.3% per annum decline.  The rise in solar plus batteries could easily cope with that, given its exponential growth.  

But that means that any coal power stations built now, or in the last ten years, will be stranded assets.  So national authorities/utilities will be reluctant to accept this.  Yet, if battery-solar goes on getting cheaper at the rate it has been, would it make sense for any country to tie itself to outmoded, expensive energy, and reduce their economic competitiveness like this?  The USA is.  Will China, the biggest user of coal in the world, also sacrifice itself to an expensive, filthy and unnecessary technology?  Will India?  Will Indonesia?  I suspect not. 

It's easier for fast-growing economies to cut coal's percentage, because they can just add solar to the mix.  But the cost of battery-solar will soon be cheaper than even electricity from paid-off, fully depreciated coal power stations.  I think they'll start by closing the oldest, dirtiest power stations first.  But it would help if they stopped building new ones.

Incumbent has a "B" in it

 By John Buss

The final GOP message to undecided voters ahead of the midterms is compelling.

Vietnam EV sales zoom past 50%

 From Ember's EV sales tracker.

EVs have risen from 2.4% of total car sales in January 2023 to 51.4% in September 2026.   100% by 2029?