Andy Kessler

WSJ: ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Is the Future (Deep Geothermal)

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/drill-baby-drill-is-the-future-11624810731

Remember the cringeworthy “Drill, baby, drill” slogan from the 2008 Republican Convention? Maybe they were on to something, but not what you think. We’re bombarded daily with calls for sustainable, renewable and carbon chewable technologies to meet our energy needs. But the solution may be just underfoot.

Dig deep enough and, no surprise, it’s hotter than hell down there. Isotope reactions in the mantle under the Earth’s crust generate 20 terawatts of constant heat flow. Typically, the temperature rises about 25 degrees Celsius for every kilometer, or 75 degrees Fahrenheit for each mile, and more the deeper you go. The steam wafting out of hot springs in Yellowstone National Park or Iceland, places where the Earth’s crust is thin, shows how much heat the mantle gives off.

We already have a good-sized surface geothermal industry in the U.S. For $15,000 to $30,000, you can hire someone to dig a few hundred feet and install a heat pump that circulates heated water to keep your house cozy.

But that’s just scratching the surface. There is huge upside to digging down miles and injecting water into underground reservoirs—think radiators—and then the heated water is pushed back out to generate steam and electricity. It’s carbon-free—clean, green and mostly unseen.

The trick is to get a large enough surface area to do the heat exchange. A typical vertical oil well might have 1,000 to 10,000 square feet of surface area. But it turns out that the same thing that’s been perfected over the past 30 years to make America energy independent can also increase that surface area—horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

I called one of the industry pioneers, University of Texas engineer Mukul Sharma, who is sometimes called the Frack King (get it?) and has a startup named Geothermix that develops enhanced geothermal systems.

WSJ: Maskless Among the Lemmings

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/maskless-among-the-lemmings-11624203554

California finally opened up on June 15. We can actually set foot inside stores and restaurants without having to wear a mask. Freedom! And it’s about time. More than 70% of California adults have at least one vaccine jab. The state’s seven-day average number of daily coronavirus cases is down 98% from its peak in January. Herds can romp. It’s over—except, well, Gov. Gavin Newsom will keep his emergency powers.

In case he changes his mind about reopening, I made a trip to Trader Joe’s to stock up on Ultra Chocolate ice cream. And yes, I see the irony of buying the least healthy item in a store stocked with expensive organic bruised bananas and dairy-free cashew cheese alternative mozzarella-style shreds. The parking lot was practically a showroom for Teslas and Prii.

I counted 50 shoppers, 49 masked. Did these people not get the unmasking memo? I was the only one not wearing a mask, and I was loving it. California is operating on an honor system, and though I’m fully vaxxed, I wish I weren’t. That very same day, Mr. Newsom was at Disneyland doling out $1.5 million prizes (taxpayer money) to 10 winners of a California vaccine lottery. That beats President Biden’s “Get a shot and have a beer.” Lesson Learned: Next pandemic, I wait to get paid.

Maybe those 49 maskers haven’t yet been vaccinated? The adage is: To find the next measles outbreak, find towns with Whole Foods supermarkets. Those places usually have high concentrations of antivaxers. That adage could probably apply to Trader Joe’s, too.

But this vaccine is different. Statistics suggest red-staters are the ones declining the Covid-19 vaccines, not the usual dissidents inspired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I’d bet good money all 49 of my fellow shoppers are topped up with vaccine-induced antibodies. So who exactly are they protecting? Me? Thanks but no thanks.

As I made my way past the wild arugula and baby spinach—the rabbit-food section—I noticed many shoppers giving me the stink eye. But c’mon, it’s not like I had 11 items in the express line.

WSJ: Stupefying Summer Small Talk

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/stupefying-summer-small-talk-11623598185

Covid isolation got you tongue-tied? Here are tips for getting the hot air flowing again.

The loudmouth at the cocktail party was on a roll. “We need to move the Overton window about the Tullock paradox.” Heads nodded in agreement, but most, like me, were clueless. Summer social season is here but our conversation skills are rusty and crusty. After 15 months of isolation, I can talk to my wife, kids and dogs. But interacting with friends and acquaintances at barbecues or overpriced coffee bars? Tough going. Over Memorial Day weekend, it was clear that my go-to questions—“What have you been up to? Been anywhere recently?”—are irrelevant and completely worthless.

I was familiar with the Overton window—what’s currently acceptable in the political mainstream—but had to look up the Tullock paradox: If it’s so cheap to buy off politicians, why doesn’t everybody? I can toss out quippy H.L. Mencken quotes when needed, like “Nature abhors a moron,” but man, I’ve got to step up my game.

These are extreme times. We all need an almost remedial course in conversation, beyond our usual monosyllabic babble, especially mine. So here’s a handy guide to stick it to your co-conversants and have their heads nodding at your bon mots in sublime stupefaction.

First, it’s always good to reference someone long dead, especially with a foreign twist. Throw around phrases like the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon: After noticing something for the first time, like how Grand Rapids constantly pops up in the news, you tend to notice almost every day. Or casually mention someone is afflicted by Munchausen syndrome—faking sickness. They’re so easy to slip into conversations. See how many heads nod with bewildered eyes. Don’t explain yourself either—a magician never reveals.

Next, if someone launches on you about his investing prowess, especially trading crypto, I suggest a comeback such as, “Oh, that’s just a classic Veblen good.” That should stump him for a while. American economist Thorstein Veblen noted that many goods are more desirable the more expensive they become, even though they’re not any better. Like BMWs. Or Jimmy Choos. Or Cristal champagne. Or GameStop shares. If the crypto braggart, wearing a Rolex, actually knows what a Veblen good is, then correct yourself and say that actually it’s probably more of a Giffen good, a nonluxury good, like rice, that can see increased demand at higher prices. That’ll buy you some time to plot an exit strategy—needing another drink, hysterical coughing fit.

We’ve all been warned never to talk about politics, religion or money. But how dull is that? Most blowhards quickly break that rule anyway. You need to be prepared.

WSJ: Unfortunately, ‘Big Is Bad’ Is Back

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/unfortunately-big-is-bad-is-back-11622995107

Will the Biden administration break up Big Tech? Antitrust basically operates under two main schools of thought. The Harvard school is best summed up as: Big is bad. This is an echo from Justice Louis Brandeis, who disliked big business, especially railroads.

Fortunately, the Chicago school has held sway for more than 40 years. That school’s thinking was popularized by Yale’s Robert Bork in his 1978 book, “The Antitrust Paradox.” His thinking was that if consumers are harmed, regulators should look into why. But if consumers aren’t harmed, there’s no case.

But “big is bad” is back! Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, told me to beware of “Neo-Brandeisians.” “Break up Big Tech,” said the Elizabeth Warren presidential campaign. Channeling Brandeis, Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu’s book was titled “The Curse of Bigness.” Does that include big government? Apparently not. Mr. Wu is now working for the White House, specifically on technology and competition for the National Economic Council. Lina Khan, currently awaiting confirmation to the Federal Trade Commission, once railed against “Big Chocolate” and has offered recommendations for how to break up Amazon in an article for the Yale Law Journal.

There’s even a neo-Brandeisian offshoot known as “hipster antitrust,” which focuses on “social harm” including distribution of wealth, political power and employment. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) introduced legislation in February 2020 that would have required companies to prove to regulators that a merger or acquisition wouldn’t reduce competition. Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) introduced legislation in April that would end all acquisitions by companies worth more than $100 billion. But these legislative efforts are going nowhere fast.

Fortunately, the consumer-welfare school still seems to rule. And rewriting antitrust laws doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Of course, the other way to break up companies is simple: Catch them in the act of harming consumers.

Let’s go back. AT&T used to have a government-granted monopoly on telephone calls, local and long-distance alike, and even on hardware.