Friday Morning Links

• The anxiety of today’s parents and kids, which exacerbates the problem of achieving independence through practices like helicopter parenting, can be seen as a rational reaction to on-the-ground economic facts. The immature orientation of many people in their 20s, of bringing their parents to job interviews and the like, can be interpreted as basic biology. In times of perceived scarcity, young animals retain juvenile behaviors longer to signal their need for resources from the providing parent. [The Tom File]
• It used to be, of course, that the lower and middle classes were stuffy and constrained by social convention while the freethinkers at universities and in the ruling class got to experiment with unconventional ideas. If their experimenting got enough success, then it might eventually filter down to ordinary people. (The sexual revolution worked this way, more or less). But now it’s our ruling class that is hidebound by political correctness, and it takes movement by the masses to give it permission to express a controversial view. That’s a major change, and it’s one that the ruling class isn’t likely to appreciate much. But it’s good for the country. Preference falsification is undemocratic, and it makes a nation stupid. If people are taught to parrot slogans instead of to discuss, debate, and report on what’s actually happening, bad decisions get made. [Glenn Harlan Reynolds]
  
• Benzene leak. Hopefully, the EPA is contacted again. Serves them right for using a bunch of low-paid, out-of-state workers that aren't familiar with that refinery and don't have proper training to do the work. Those fuckers are going to get someone killed again like they did in Toledo by using cheap workers that don't know what the hell they're doing. [r/Lima]
• Tortoise Midstream Energy Fund, Inc. (NYSE: NTG) and Tortoise Energy Infrastructure Corp. (NYSE: TYG) will merge, with TYG emerging as the continuing fund, with combined total assets under management (AUM) on a pro forma basis of $1.1 billion as of Nov. 29, 2024. TYG will retain its original investment strategy and objective, becoming Tortoise Capital's flagship closed-end fund solution for investors seeking this structure. Tortoise Capital is announcing a change in the frequency of TYG distributions from quarterly to monthly. The monthly distribution declared by TYG will be $0.365 per share, which represents a 40% increase. [Tortoise Capital]
• Suncor's 2025 capital program is a balance between investments in sustaining its business, while selectively investing in high value economic opportunities. Major economic investments planned or continuing in 2025 include the replacement of the Upgrader 1 coke drums at Base Plant, the development of the Mildred Lake West Mine Extension and West White Rose projects, and the execution of our Petro-Canada retail network improvement plan. Suncor's lower cash operating costs per barrel continue to reflect progress on its initiatives to reduce its corporate WTI breakeven by US$10 per bbl versus 2023. [Suncor Energy Inc.] 
• There's some value to being able to say you're an investor in SpaceX, and it's at least a little rude to reply by asking "since when?" or "at what price?" The social convention appears to be: if you say "I've owned SpaceX since their Series B," that's true, and if you say "I own some SpaceX," it probably means you invested in an SPV at a higher valuation than actual shares have ever traded. Not every time; some people are modest, but there's a narrow band of modesty that requires namechecking the company but doesn't entail providing such details. [The Diff]
• Her Nigerian heritage often comes up in conversations about her straight-talking style. But she says this misses the point. ‘I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity [Yoruba]. That’s what I really am. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where the Islamism is, those were our ethnic enemies and yet you end up being lumped in with those people.’ [The Spectator]
• A weird side effect of venture capital is that you never get to see the counterfactual on growth. So a lot of times, your company is growing for some reason, probably inherent to the product or something like that. But because you've taken all this venture capital, you have to spend it, you can't just leave it in your bank account. And so you'll hire a bunch of people or spend a bunch of money on dumb stuff and then you will falsely attribute that spending to the growth, but in fact, it was not at all related. And what's funny about this is you can never run the counterfactual because of the venture capital dynamic and so it's really hard for people to believe. [Jeremy Giffon]