
The Investment Secrets of Al Gore - yurisagalov
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/11/the-planet-saving-capitalism-subverting-surprisingly-lucrative-investment-secrets-of-al-gore/407857/?single_page=true
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zbyte64
"Generation’s best-known analysis is its 2013 report asserting that coal and
petroleum reserves were “stranded assets” whose theoretical market value would
never be realized, because environmental, legal, technological, and market
constraints would inevitably prevent much of that carbon from being sold and
burned."

That might be another motivating factor for the Saudi's to sell their oil
cheaply. Sell as much as you can now because the future market will be more
hostile.

~~~
adventured
From time to time they talk about it candidly, the recognition that the
electric vehicle shift poses a huge threat to oil demand as a whole (typically
interwoven with a discussion on solar or renewables in general). All sorts of
knock-on effects occur if you remove 1/3 of a market.

Saudi has around ~268 billion barrels of oil. They're producing at 10.x
million barrels per day currently (let's say 3.8 billion barrels per year).
Estimated reserves are almost always wrong to the low side, at least in the
prior century projections were overwhelmingly that way. Saudi might have a
century of oil production left at these levels. I think I'd be happily selling
it cheap today as well (and considering their cost basis), I wouldn't want to
be dependent on oil in 40 or 50 years, much less 100.

~~~
barney54
The challenge is that there isn't a single car company making money on
electric vehicles. Even Tesla selling their cars at around $100k is still
seldom profitable (and when they are it's because of selling credits).

It's tough to say that EVs are the future when it isn't clear that anyone can
make money selling them.

~~~
nqzero
part of why they're not profitable is because of the saudis dumping oil, which
may well be part of their motivation

~~~
ams6110
How is that part of why they're (EV manufacturers) not profitable?

~~~
knappe
Easy. There is zero incentive to build a better car when the one you can buy
now is so cheap. This is why in the States, SUV sales follow gas prices [0].

[0] - [http://www.npr.org/2015/01/05/375201451/car-sales-surged-
in-...](http://www.npr.org/2015/01/05/375201451/car-sales-surged-in-december-
capping-a-good-year-for-the-industry)

~~~
mc32
That speaks to the "operating" costs not to the initial "investment" to get
the vehicle off the dealer lot.

Why can't a manufacturer make a profitable vehicle which is also affordable
for the consumer, even at the high-end of the market?

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iofj
TLDR: a "poor" senator (meaning just ~$2 million throwing away money), gets
kicked out of the white house, and connects with loads of high tech firms and
big banks and "somehow" gets >100x investment return in ~10 years, or 10x
market return (70% per year average) through his hedge fund (the 10x return is
on his own money, of course, not on the people who paid him to manage their
money, article doesn't state what their return was).

Looking up what return he provided for clients in the same period, for one
client (NY city/state [2]) it appears he managed to deliver 32% in the
2009-2012 period. Per year that comes out to 9.5%, assuming reinvestment. Keep
in mind that plain S&P 500 rose from 90 (SPY approx value in 2009/1/1) to 205
(SPY approx value 2012/6/1), or 233%, or 32% per year.

Can someone explain to me why anyone parks even a single penny with this firm
? Although the article does say that it was public funds looking for an
"environmentally friendly" way to invest.

Some interesting things, apparently ethical investing means mostly tech
companies, with Microsoft being the #1 single investment. Generally looks like
a run-of-the-mill, a lot riskier than usual (has biotech & tech, he's got to
be down 10% for the past month, at least. And if his bond portfolio is this
risky, more than 10%), portfolio.

[1] [http://www.nasdaq.com/quotes/institutional-
portfolio/generat...](http://www.nasdaq.com/quotes/institutional-
portfolio/generation-investment-management-llp-733957)

[2] [http://www.businessinsider.com.au/al-gores-generation-
invest...](http://www.businessinsider.com.au/al-gores-generation-investment-
management-wins-1656-million-nyc-pension-contract-2012-6)

~~~
1812Overture
The bulk of his money came from co-founding Current TV then selling it to Al
Jazeara for an estimated $500 million in 2013. He also made a killing off of
getting a bunch of Apple options for serving on their board in the early
2000s.

