Kaiser,
Agree except “air” is the top of my list.

Amen, Kaiser Wilhelm, AMEN! Too many people equate money with wealth. NOT the same at all. You have absolutely hit the spot on the very basics of wealth – goods and services (starting with “water, food and shelter). Money is only the medium we agree to use for trading these items with each other. It’s nice to have money; better still to have a full belly and a roof over one’s head!

I think the EV’s would make more sense in high population urban cities where driving typically is of the short distance and parking would be on streets or in parking garages. I say this because of the possibility of the lithium batteries catching fire. I wouldn’t have one parked in my garage, which is part of my house. I don’t have to worry about my 4Runner or Corvette burning my house down and when I need fuel for either, it’s readily available and doesn’t take all day to fill. My time is much to valuable to spend hours waiting to charge up a freaking battery (made in China, no less), and that’s assuming you can even find a charging station!

Sam-I-Am & Kaiser,

Per the EV topic: A few Hollywood celebrities recently have given up on their Tesla EV cars because they were stranded when one or more of the batteries blew up & the car had to be totaled as Sam mentioned. Also, if you are driving an EV in a remote area you could run out of power & there might not be a charging station nearby & you are stranded in the middle of nowhere!
On the Pt & Pd topic: both metals are catalysts and do the same thing in an automobile catalytic converter, so the manufacturers should be using cheaper platinum now instead of palladium (especially when palladium went so very high in value awhile back).
P.S.: When I bought my first platinum coin from the U.S. Mint in 1997, I read that the only major mine for platinum in the USA is near Stillwater, Montana (as Sam mentioned) & is now owned by a South African company as of about 3 years ago.

NumisdudeTX

I heartily agree with your assessment of EV’s. The mining of Lithium for the batteries, as well as rare earth elements for control chips, causes horrific damage – but not much in places that most people see. The buyers of EV’s can soothe their conscience, thinking that they are “saving the planet”, when in fact, they are simply hiding the damage they do.

BTW, the ability to repair EV’s is strikingly limited. Since the battery packs are generally NOT removable/replaceable, any damage in an accident that even cracks the battery case results in the insurer totalling the car. The fire danger is too great with LI-ion batteries. So the owner winds up taking a loss on a depreciated vehicle, and must then buy another ecologically destructive car. Internal combustion powered vehicles have much greater repair opportunity.

On further reflection, another thought comes to mind: if the EPA and other elements in our current administration achieve their goal of largely removing internal combustion engines, the value of palladium might be substantially reduced, since most production goes into catalytic converters. Electric vehicles don’t require such items.

The NHTSA proposed 43.5 mpg CAFE standards can only be reached, as EPA admits, by replacing roughly 2/3 of gas/diesel vehicles with EV’s. This is their stated goal by 2032.

So who gets affected by a great reduction in world demand for Pd? 40% comes from South Africa (generally a friendly) and another 44% comes from Russia (not so friendly). The balance is mostly from Canada and Montana.

I realize this is a bit of a stretch from coins, but I believe it’s worth some thought. Everything is interconnected in today’s economy.

Sir Kaiser-

Palladium certainly has industrial value as seen in automobile catalytic converters, along with platinum. It may be that, despite the Establishment’s insistence, many investors don’t see the “precious” metal value of Pd, as compared with gold, despite the “benchmark”. See Wikipedia’s article on Palladium.

While the Fed interest rates are at a 22-year high…

NumisdudeTX