“Cattle production and beef consumption now rank among the gravest threats to the future well-being of the earth and its human population.”

— Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture (1993)

Dear Reader,

Poor Mark Carney… I always liked that intro from Bill Bonner, tongue-in-cheek as it is.

Carney, the former head of two central banks and current UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, has been uncharacteristically quiet lately.

Just a few months ago, he was promising that his Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero had $130 trillion in private commitments to fight global warming. Today it’s unclear if any of that money has been mobilized… or if it even exists.

The same can be said of a lot of promises made at the United Nations Climate Change Conference — COP26 — last November. That’s probably a good thing, though… because a lot of the actions in the queue will affect actual people.

Let’s, for a moment, consider the Global Methane Pledge. The United States and 104 other countries agreed to cut methane gas emissions by 30% by 2030. Sounds good on paper. Sounds good in press releases. Sounds good for election campaigns.

Reaching that goal, however, will mean targeting one of the biggest producers of methane — cows and other chattel. The stench from a dairy farm as you pass by… that’s a greenhouse gas being released into the air… by multiple beasts in unison.

Some of the potential solutions being floated are to feed cattle seaweed that results in less methane… or to zap “cowpies” with artificial lightning. (Yes, really.)

Dan Denning, my guest for this week’s Wiggin Session, is currently living in Laramie, Wyoming. He has a unique perspective to share.

“I’m meeting people in restaurants and bookstores and bars and coffee shops and striking up conversations,” Mr. Denning tells me. “They all seem to be working with animals,” including ranchers who are “looking forward to a branding season.”

So far, they haven’t been ordered to start using seaweed food supplements or install lightning machines. But the pandemic has shown that governments are more than willing to mandate whatever they think benefits their definition of a public good.

The people working the land “have practical knowledge of livestock and farming,” Dan says. “They have to figure out how to solve problems and manage them.” They have very little knowledge of what’s going on in boardrooms half a world away in Switzerland.

Telling them they have to stop working… wear masks… or get a vaccine just because folks in the big city are getting sick ignores the realities they live with every day.

Mandates borne out of COP26 will be just as arrogant… and/or ignorant.

“That’s what’s missing from the response from the Davos crowd and the people that support them,” Dan says. “They don’t believe that in a free society we might actually have different values.”

Dan is holed up in Laramie because he “wanted a balance between the convenience of big cities with restaurants and food and entertainment and some sports.” But he was done “living in big cities.” Now he’s gaining a perspective of the world experienced by all the other folks on the planet who could care less what’s happening in Davos, Switzerland.

What does this have to do with your own investing strategy? If Mark Carney, also a member of the Davos set, can siphon off $130 trillion in capital from investment banks and funds to initiate climate change initiatives… and if you’re invested in one of those funds, say with your 401(k) or IRA… you won’t have any clue what social engineering project that money is funding.

The national debt clock is ticking by like a Tokyo speed train. Click on the link and you’ll see what I mean. And yet, the entire nation is only $29 trillion in debt. What are the cronies going to do with $130 trillion in commitments?

You may recall, Carney is supposedly going to cash in his security badge so he can run for Prime Minister of Canada. The only reason for him to make that kind of move would be he is aware of the farce as we are.

Follow your bliss,

Addison Wiggin
Founder, The Financial Reserve