Podcast & Video Of The Week
A Look At Ideas In The Canadian Oil Energy Sector & Hearing From Treasury Secretary Bessent On Trump's Economic Plan
I was able to squeeze in one last day in on the slopes yesterday, along with a couple runs in the fresh stuff before it warmed up in the afternoon. I wish the season wasn’t ending, but one thing I love about skiing is that it is one of my favorite ways to unplug for a day and spend some time in nature. You get lots of time to think and it’s a good workout at the same time. Believe it or not, I do a lot of writing in my head while I’m doing something physical, but skiing, lifting weights, and other forms of exercise are the best ways to deal with stress. Anyway, now that my random thought of the day is done, we can get into the usual weekly post.
There are a couple things that I wanted to comment on as far as politics and current events, but I’ll be saving up ammo for my post later this week due to the sheer number of things happening and the pace of everything going on. I do want to share a couple of my favorite podcasts from the last week that are worth checking out. The first is focused on Canadian energy and some of the opportunities in that area, and the second is a podcast with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. I’m curious to see how Trump’s economic agenda plays out, but it is interesting to hear it directly from him, instead of from the various market commentators.
In The Money w/ Cole Smead
I have talked a bit about the Canadian energy names and why they are interesting, but this podcast is a good place to start if you want to get started on same of the individual names. Smead talks about why they like the oil sands and long life assets in Canada. They prefer companies that lean towards buybacks instead of dividends, and they talk about why they aren’t huge fans of majors owning downstream and midstream assets. He shared his thoughts on the recent Whitecap and Veren deal, and why they pay attention to what the Waterous Energy Fund is doing. Some of their favorites are Strathcona, MEG Energy, and Cenovus, but this was a great podcast with plenty of discussion on individual names that might be of interest to readers.
All-In Podcast w/ Scott Bessent
I’m not a big fan of Chamath and the rest of the All-In podcast guys, but I made an exception to watch their recent podcast with Scott Bessent. He shared his background as an investor, and the story of breaking the Bank of England and the back and forth between him, Stanley Druckenmiller and George Soros regarding that trade. He lays out the Trump administration’s economic plan, the state of the American Dream, and changes that they might implement in the next couple years. They talked tax cuts, tariffs, and deregulation of the financial sector, among several other notable topics.
One of the biggest things they will be focused on is bringing down the debt and deficit levels over time, without destroying the economy. He points out that it’s more of a spending problem than a revenue problem, and that the US should shift its focus from the government sector to the private sector. They also talked about bringing manufacturing back to the US to help the middle class and improve real wages for the part of the country that has been left behind. There has been a lot of talk about what Trump might or might not do in his second term, but it is interesting to hear it directly from one of the most important people in his administration.