5 Responses

1. 11/02/2014, Peter Lloyd wrote

   re: WILL YOU CHOOSE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BRITAIN’S FRACKING REVOLUTION?

   OK, good, informative article, as far as I can judge.

   But to call the rolling, forested hills and green, fertile valleys of beautiful, mostly fairly affluent, Pennsylvania a “desolate outback” makes one wonder whether you really know what you are talking about. I hope your economic and technical insight is better than your knowledge of the USA and that you are not just regurgitating some vested interest spin without examining it first.

   I believe shale gas (and, therefore, fracking) will be the last-minute economic saviour of both the US and UK provided that the excitement does not sidetrack proper safety and environmental measures on its extraction and distribution. In the UK, I hope that lessons will be learned from North Sea oil and gas, so that the advantages trickle down to the consumer instead of being frittered away in stupid political ideology – left or right. So far, the indications are not good.

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2. 11/02/2014, Richard Tavener wrote

   One as heard from several sources that U.S company profit margins are at an historically high level. Do you think that cheap ” shale ” energy has already contributed to this situation and that there’s more to come?

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3. 13/02/2014, Ed Bowsher wrote

   Yes, I think shale energy has certainly helped US company profit margins.

   Is there more to come? Possibly, but not enough to turn me into an out and out bull on the US market. Valuations are still too high. I’m happy to buy selectively in the US, but I don’t think now is a good time to buy the whole market – ie in an ETF or similar.

   Ed

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4. 14/02/2014, Jon Slack wrote

   It’s very convenient that there was no time to “assess the environmental impact of shale energy” in this video. It’s the most important factor – far far more important than whether you make a few quid or not. The evidence so far is that this will lay waste to vast swathes of our Green and Pleasant Land, leaving behind a radioactive no-man’s land upon which nothing will grow and no-one will be able to live there. In an early publication you [Money Week] were saying that French investors were looking to investing in fracking in the UK, but failed to say that the more sensible French have BANNED fracking in France due to the environmental issues. Of course they’ll invest here – this isn’t their back yard.

   Yes, there’s gas down there and yes, it’s now possible to get it out. But as an old Native American saying goes: Once you’ve chopped down the last tree, you’ll learn that you can’t eat money.

   The sun will burn for another 4 billion years. The Earth revolves causing air movement and the moon moves the Earth’s water up and down twice a day – there’s enough energy there to last us forever – not 50 measly years. THAT’s where your money should be going. Short, sharp, quick return in exchange for a world your grandchildren can’t live on is mindless stupidity. The old curse ‘may you rot in hell’ will not affect you, but it will affect your descendants. Because that’s all you’ll leave them.

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5. 06/03/2014, WILLIAMS95634 wrote

   Hi Ed – thanks for your videos, always helpful. Not relevant to the latest video but I have been watching the Enterprise value/ EBIT video. I understand the principles and have tried to apply them. In looking up the data tables on H/L or Digital Look though, the terminology gets tricky. So what lines on the financial data pages do you use for net debt – is it total liabilities or just borrowings ? For EBIT, is that exactly the same as operating profit or something slightly different ? So I’m interested in applying the theory but don’t want to leap to wrong conclusions if my calcs include incorrect assumption. Perhaps you could do another video detailing a case and illustrating which lines of finical data you use.

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