Manarin Investment Counsel, Ltd.

Here at Manarin Investment Counsel, we have always maintained that citizens, not government, build prosperity and wealth by utilizing the resources they have to both meet the needs/wants of their community and earn a living for themselves.  In fact, this is the essence of capitalism.  For example, successful restaurant owners are successful not because people have to eat.  After all, people can make their own food.  These owners are successful because they provide a menu of items people want and are willing to pay someone else to prepare.

When it comes to energy, companies are successful when they provide the energy people desire at a price they are willing to pay.  Companies fail when they do not deliver this.  Unfortunately, some policy makers at the national level (usually from the political left) fail to realize this simple truth.  Consequently, they often take from the successful company and give to the unsuccessful, either through direct subsidies or loan guarantees, so lenders will be more likely to loan money to unsuccessful efforts.  Such policy makers fail to realize that every dollar loaned to an unsuccessful effort is a dollar that cannot be put to work expanding a successful endeavor.  In the end, rewarding failure just leads to more failure. Jobs that could be created and sustained by the expansion of the successful effort fail to materialize. Instead, short-term jobs ultimately disappear when the unsuccessful effort fails.

A recent article from the Heritage Foundation - click here to read the full article - gives historical examples of when this has happened in the energy sector.  The collapse of solar-cell manufacturer Solyndra is the most famous example, but there are many more examples of policy makers picking losers.  The main reason they pick losers is because they use political or ideological reasoning to spend other people’s money (i.e. taxpayer dollars). It’s not the same economic and sound investment reasoning these same policy makers might use with their personal portfolios.  After all, I wonder if those who voted to use taxpayer money to support these initiatives believed in it enough to use their own money to support these companies all the way to the bottom as well.

At Manarin Investment Counsel, you can be assured that our investment recommendations are based on sound economic, business, financial, and investment reasoning. Not politics or ideology. Because your money deserves the best opportunity for success.