What's the buzz

Whatever industry you work in, what are you hearing about Trump coming into office ?

Are people being optimistic or have just a wait and see mentality ? I know some of you still have ties to the military, so are you hearing anything from your contacts ?

How about the oil industry ? I'm betting Lumenari could fill us in on that if she stops by and Zaphod58 along with several others could tell us something about the military.

I've been out of the coal industry for a while now and all my connections are gone, so I can't really tell you much on that front, but 3 new coal mines have started up here in Western Ky over the last few years and they just recently started hiring more people so maybe that's good news for them.

So....what have you heard ?

a reply to: DAVID64

Tech here (redundancy for data center power and cooling).

It’s a mixed bag. On one hand we see a lot of growth ahead, on the other there’s some anxiety on chip tariffs (and possible supply chain constraints).

That said, seems to be business as usual. I haven’t really noticed any projects change, or new ones that weren’t already being talked about. People just seem pragmatic, whatever it is we’ll figure it out.

a reply to: DAVID64

I have a mosquito control/eradication franchise, and all the owners I speak to are vey optimistic over the future. Those that survived I should say. We were lucky to hold our own over the last few years. I thought covid was going to shut us down, but with folks being home, they noticed they were being eaten by bugs, then realized that didn't have to happen. We actually did well in 2020/2021. Economy being so sluggish has made growth very slow (2 percent) last year, and we are anticipating some big momentum over the summer.

AI requirements project the need for electricity to increase by at least 160% by the year 2030. Fossil fiels aren't going anywhere, no matter how much money they throw at green energy.

This snake seems to have two heads.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

My son worked for a chip manufacturer and they constantly complained that they couldn't get parts to build the boards. He has a much better job now with Hershey's [ yeah the chocolate people ] but I hope Trump's tariffs don't interfere with the industry.

a reply to: network dude

We had a lot of rain this year and the mosquitos had a perfect breeding ground. You could have just drove around my property all Summer and killed like what seemed several million. From my back door to my truck is about 60 feet and you'd slap at least 3 by the time you got to the truck.

a reply to: DAVID64

We’ll be fine either way. We’ve been dealing with supply chain struggles for breakers and bypasses for a year, hasn’t broken anything yet. Unless the AI bubble pops the industry will chug along and figure it out. As much as I hate AI and think it’s largely a gimmick, part of it is real and an arms race, so I doubt it pops too hard.

a reply to: nugget1

That's what amuses me about the Greenies. Give them their wish, take all fossil fuels offline and they'd be dead in a month.

I mean, they could still take their Tesla to the grocery store, but there won't be any food because those delivery trucks run on diesel.

a reply to: DAVID64

Alberta Canada here.

Engineering and technical trades are my forte.
When oil does well we all do well in this province.

So here’s the chatter…

But the incoming trade wars under a second Trump administration have not dissuaded Canadian oil and gas majors from drawing up plans to drill even more. Canada's oil sands producer, Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU), has unveiled plans to increase its oil and gas output next year as it continues to work to improve its performance and lower costs from its assets. Suncor has set a target to grow oil and gas production to between 810,000 and 840,000 barrels per day in 2025, up from its 2024 estimated range of 770,000 to 810,000 barrels per day, and sees annual refining utilization of 93% to 97%. In terms of capex, the oil sands giant plans to spend in the range of C$6.1 to C$6.3 billion, with 45% allocated to economic investments.

oilprice.com...

Add to that…

Alberta launches sheriff-led border patrol to boost security after Trump’s tariff pledge

www.theglobeandmail.com...

While Trudeau and Doug Ford make threats and poke the bear, Alberta sees this as an opportunity to profit from US trade, at the same time, cleaning up our crappy Federal border policies.

I'm in the home heating industry. Propane, fuel oil + vehicle fuels.

My boss is cautiously optimistic about the next 4 years.

Of course it's a catch 22. Too low price, not much profitability. Same with too high.
(We are weather dependent as well though, and last year in MI was very mild, so it wasn't a great year.)
He thinks everyone will be pretty happy.

Fingers crossed.

a reply to: DAVID64

Media Geek....IATSE and SAG/AFTRA

With the advent of www. streaming...the industry is starving for content.

I almost work constantly.

a reply to: DAVID64

Hiring is down across the board.
Owners are very optimistic about the next couple years but still very cautious. Prices for everything are so damn high (materials and healthcare) that many businesses need an adjustment period.

a reply to: DAVID64

Connected to the stem cell industry here. Very upbeat and lots of excitement. Big Pharma and the government health agencies tipped their hand during the plandemic. Trump had "the right to try" in place but then that right was denied.
Only the jabs for one and all. However offshore people were being given stem cells to treat serious cases of Covid and they worked!

With RFK Jr circling the FDA, CDC, and NIH- the hostages are finally going to be released from the grips of Big Pharma and Big Ag.
Then stem cell therapy will finally have an opportunity to make a significant contribution to health. The biggest issue I see is that of cost. New regulations need to be made that health insurance companies should be mandated to cover these therapies or else the cost is too prohibitive for most people. It's not just the therapy but the cost of travel offshore and then hotels and food. The stem cell therapy needs to come here.
Of course caution must be exercised when sourcing the placentas for the stem cells. They must be certified as mRNA jab free.

a reply to: DAVID64

People don't seem to understand the purpose of the tariffs.

They seem to not understand that yes, corporations can raise prices on goods to try and offset the tariffs, but if people can't afford to buy or can't see the value in buying some exorbitantly marked up junk from China or other 3rd world countries made using slave labor then they WON'T buy those things and the companies lose money. They are incentivized not to raise prices to a level that scares off customers.

OR best case scenario the companies bring their manufacturing back to America and have no tarriffs on their goods.

I think both things are a win. Companies jack prices to the moon, nobody buys the stuff, companies go out of business which paves the way for more competition and small businesses.

OR

Companies bring allllllllllllll those jobs back.to America and stop exploiting slave labor in other countries. I watched a documentary about jeans manufacturing in China. Those girls had to live in the factory, their literal pennies a week they got paid for working basically 24 hours a day actually using clothespins to HOLD THEIR EYES OPEN! they were so tired they had to pay RENT back to the factory to live there AND pay the factory for their food which was like basically just pieces of bread provided by the factory. Working these girls to death. Unacceptable.

a reply to: Shoshanna

I doubt we’ll see a tariff regime like the one talked about. More likely imo, it will be leverage for negotiations.

Tariffs can certainly work on some goods, but others it takes years or a decade to adjust the supply chain (an unfortunate reality bad policies placed us in).

TSMC (largest chip foundry company) is making a high end chip fab in Arizona. It broke ground around 2021, and still a little ways off from production. Even once that’s online, there’s still the challenge of securing the supply chain before that.

Part of this is going to take years or a decade to retool.

I think the healthy thing to do would make sure we have an end to end supply chain on most things in house… but still continue to buy abroad as well. One thing that gets overlooked a lot of the time is many resources are finite. So while it’s tempting to utilize what we have at home, that means it’s tapping into reserves. It’s not always bad to buy from abroad when prices are cheap to secure what we have, while maintaining a supply chain at home that could be ramped up if needed.