In our system of commerce-capitalism-the purpose of a company is to maximize profits to the owners (the shareholders) and broadly speaking, the purpose of investors (those who manage big pools of money) is to ensure capital allocation is done properly. Companies doing well get more capital and those that aren’t…don’t. Government revenues are generated from a cut of the profits to pay for infrastructure (how large this should be depends on your political persuasion) and employees are the cogs that make it all possible.

This overly simplistic view is not intended to transform anyone’s view of commerce in America (despite the fact that for a brief moment in time, I had the #1 selling new release in economics- which may be the first one since 1952). I raise it to address the question: why are banks tightening lending standards and why can’t companies raise capital for acquisitions or development. The chart says it all.

I contend it’s easy to pile on with climate change blaming, ESG and all the other reasons but reason #1 is nobody likes a loser. A generalist investor who had the bright idea to allocate capital to energy is now finishing out the season at the Amazon warehouse, happy the holiday rush is over.

Change the chart, change the sentiment. Period.

 #hottakeoftheday