An Inflection Point for Water
The launch of a six month run of episodes featuring us on New To The Street brings a whole new level of excitement to OriginClear’s WATER disruption… But how will a new global recession and trends of slow growth and high prices affect us? Well, the upswing of U.S. sourcing and the swell of opportunity and strength in the US labor market are definitely working to our advantage, but the clincher is that while traditional asset investments are stalling things have never looked better for water! See why in the briefing!
Transcript from recording
Opening
Estrella: Hi, I’m Estrella Nouri. And today, I want to tell you about how together we can change the world. A few years ago, I was introduced to a new initiative called Water On Demand™ and how it has the potential to save our most vital resource — water. Water across the globe is in trouble, and unfortunately, United States is no exception, with droughts, soaring water rates and decreased quality. Today, the US recycles less than 1% of its wastewater. On top of that, industry and agriculture account for 89% of fresh water usage in the US, which they then pollute and send back into the already broken and old systems controlled by local governments. And now those government bodies are telling businesses, “We can’t take your water anymore. Sorry, treat it yourself.”
The challenge for these businesses is that it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat their own water. Expensive machines, installation, expertise and maintenance. They just can’t do it. But with Water On Demand, we’re giving investors the ability to invest in water systems that can be dropped in place to create instant infrastructure for businesses and communities. Water gets treated and recycled, and as those consumers use water, they pay for it just like they already pay for their own water bills.
Now, for the first time ever, you can invest in the biggest disruption the water industry has ever seen. We could be sitting on the opportunity of a lifetime (And we are!) Learn more about Water On Demand by visiting us online at waterondemand.net.
Introduction
Riggs: That is fun. Estrella is so cool. She’s so direct and strong, and we’re building the entire upcoming regulation A offering around her as the spokesperson. But there’s other parts to it, as we’ll be showing you, including this cool Nasdaq Marketsite recording we made this week. Stay tuned. You’ll be seeing more about that. But let’s go ahead and get started with the presentation.
Water — The Blue Gold™. And that is now trademarked with the United States Patent Office. And we are really about the emerging income asset that is water.
And it’s getting more and more exciting.
You know, we keep hearing about how Klaus Schwab is evil man and so forth, and it turns out its relevance is fading. A lot of people just not showing up. It always looks the glitziest when it’s on its way out the door. Literally, Schwab himself is not showing up. Neither is Bill Gates. And the main people who are supposedly driving this.
Global Economy Vision
But here’s the problem that these guys have. Their vision, of course, is an interconnected global economy. But, and this didn’t happen with the COVID recession, it actually happened starting in 2008, the value of global imports and exports as a percentage of GDP has been dropping from really over 60% down to 56 and a half percent. And it’s on its way down, right? “That damage to Davos mission has accelerated over the past 12 months.”
Deglobalization — Island Regions
So last week we had this really interesting interview of Peter Zeihan about this whole issue of de-globalization and who’s going to survive and so forth and the US actually is in good shape. But this also means that the attempts by the World Economic Forum since 1971 to try and knit the world together in this bond that they control is kind of becoming a problem and the world is becoming a much more disconnected place. And as some of that’s actually pretty good. You know, why, why have a supply chain that stretches five, eight, 10,000 miles, right?
And sure enough, the United States is pushing ahead with a robust industrial strategy aimed at boosting its prowess. And that is really what we’re experiencing in Texas, where, as you know, our revenues, Q3 2021 and Q three 2022 tripled. And that’s recognized revenues. That’s properly disclosable, recognized revenues. And we think that we’ll end up pretty much in that range by the end of the year.
Why? A lot of it has to do with the US sourcing and the fact that we we sold so much consumables. I think our consumable sales were right up there with the rest of the business. So very exciting. So that’s, that’s an interesting situation and worth looking at and remembering that it’s really going to be about island regions of the world.
OK, population growth and decline. Well, you know that some countries are winning the game. Some countries are losing.
Let’s take a look. This is from visual capitalist and this is the beginning, 1973 to 1993, this period here. And obviously we had China— number one, India — number two, United States — number three, Russia — number four, Indonesia… Now, here’s what’s interesting: Japan — hundred and ten, Brazil, Germany, Bangladesh, etc.. Nigeria, all the way down here at number 11 and then Mexico.
Let’s see where we ended up in 2023. Wow. India has taken off. China is on a cliff falling down a cliff because of their, of their one child policy. That basically was a very bad idea. Nigeria has risen and is expected to surpass the US. US is still number three here. 340 million. You see they were at 207, not 340. Nigeria was all the way down here at 60 million and they have grown to 224. That is astonishing.
Brazil has lost some ground. Brazil was at number seven. It’s still number seven. But relatives for example with Nigeria and Pakistan. Pakistan was all the way down here in number ten and the same thing now, whereas Pakistan grew. Bangladesh should not really stayed flat. Russia is in number nine, and Russia was actually right behind the US at the end of World War Two.
Population Time Bomb
What is not well known about Russia is that they have a population time bomb. They are not getting the births that they should. And as a result, as Peter Zeihan predicted, they are in a very tough place with their population decline. Japan is astonishing from 110 million all the way down to number 12, 123. So relatively speaking, a drop and they’re dropping fast. Germany. Was up here at number eight with 79 million and number 19 now.
Value of a Growing Population
So this is what the whole chart looks like, just so you get a visual on it. I wanted to give you a breakdown, but you can see how the trends go. The US is a steady growth player. That black ribbon there. And of course, one thing, I mean, we have a big immigration problem, but it does good things for our population. Now, could we choose to have, we want people from other countries or I mean, what do we want? Right. And how does it affect our welfare policies? A number of major issues with immigration that need solving.
But one good thing about it is that it keeps our population growing, and that is essential for a country to be strong. That’s in total opposition to what major global population planners have been pursuing for the last 100 years, which is they want they were trying to slow it down. Unfortunately, when you slow things down too much, then they come crashing down, as we’ve seen in Italy, Japan and of course, China. All right. That’s very interesting stuff.
Real estate. What’s going on? Real estate? Well, there’s actually some booms going on. For example, where I live, Clearwater, Florida. There’s a nice little boom going on residential. And I just see that that rates are dropping again, especially on FHA rates. That’s good. I was just, learned that I could get, I could refi for 1.69% on my basic FHA guaranteed loan. That’s very cool. So that is actually good news.
But here’s the problem. The huge REIT’s, the real estate investment trusts are in trouble. There is a lot of redemptions going on that are hitting people, pulling out cash. And when you can’t get your money back, that only makes things worse. Right? And then, that was BlackRock. And then we also have, yeah, interesting how the COVID low was March 20 right there, 2020. We’re actually right back at that low in terms of that BlackRock UK property fund. It has a lot to do with the UK’s economy, which is in deep trouble due to the skyrocketing price of energy, which is entirely a self-inflicted wound.
And also we have Blackstone is capping redemptions on its real estate income trust.
So, “someone yelled ‘fire in a crowded theater’ and investors dashed to the exit. Thank you Fed.” Withdrawals, look at the withdrawals taking off. So it’s a problem and by no means all REITs are in trouble. But some of the biggest institutional ones that are, that are maybe tied to the political situation have a real problem. Anyway, that is why you should be very, very aware of what’s going on in real estate and know where you’re putting your money.
2023 Outlook — Fractured Markets
All right. Now, fractured markets. Originally last week, I was promising a piece by F.T., but actually, you know, I watched it. It was so boring. So instead, I went to another one, which I’ll get to shortly. Meanwhile, a quick remark about crypto.
Crypto Slowdown
Crypto funding is down, but still up above previous years. So compared to 2018, which is the last the last boom, we’re actually well above it. So that’s despite all the bad news in crypto. And we know that Sam Bankman-Fried, defrauded a lot, but it wasn’t anywhere close to 21 billion. So it’s worth thinking about now as you can see, if you look at the black, the dark green, the light green and light screen, that’s how the year went and as you see it slowing down throughout this year. And then in 2021, Q4 was very strong. So there was a big slowdown between 21 and 2122.
Unicorns. What about unicorns?
Well, Terrence Rohan said, “Oh, my gosh, there’s a 1205 unicorns.” That is worth a billion or more. And then guess who got into this story? Elon Musk. “Not for long.” And yeah, that’s way too many unicorns. That’s just money being thrown at stuff. And most of these I look at these, I have no idea what these things are. Anyway, I guess you can get to $1,000,000,000 pretty easily. But this is actually, you know, it’s good that the air is being popped out of the balloon now so that perhaps one of these days we can be a unicorn in a, in a restored market because it has been very, very crazy.
Okay. This is the one that I wanted to get to by Deutsche Welle, which is the German broadcast network. Pretty interesting. It’s got some good news in it, too.
Deutsche Welle — Business Beyond
Start of presentation
Maria SIna: The world is in the midst of an economic downturn.
Sara J: Currently a global recession is a major risk.
Maria SIna: Three of our biggest economic engines are sputtering from war in Europe to a lockdown China and rising inflation. A bitter blend is hitting the world’s economic powerhouses.
Bob H: And there is no, no, no, no sort of point of light at the end of the tunnel here, because it’s all now begins to feed on each other.
Maria SIna: In this video, we will be asking what makes this economic downturn so different from the Great Recession in 2008?
Maria D: This is a recession that is unlike perhaps the financial crisis recession, that was due to financial crisis, that is being felt by every single individual.
Economist 4: Definitely for the years to come, we are going to witness the world, from a Chinese perspective, that we are not accustomed to.
Maria SIna: We will discover the paradoxes that make this downturn unique.
Kimberley C: So the labor market actually looks quite good, which is one of the confusing things about today’s economy.
Maria SIna: We will assess how easily this crisis can be remedied compared to the last.
Bob H: We don’t have tools at the moment that could address the recession that we’re facing.
Maria SIna: And we will look at the countries who are bucking the negative trend. That’s all coming up on business beyond.
Both the IMF and the World Bank are warning that we are edging towards global recession. But determining what counts as a recession and what doesn’t can be complicated. There is no official definition. A common rule of thumb is that when an economy experiences two consecutive quarters of negative growth, it’s in recession. But a decline in GDP isn’t the only indicator. Other metrics like unemployment levels and consumer confidence also play a role.
Kimberley C: People lose their jobs. They have to cut into their savings. Unemployment can be extremely disruptive personally, not just for economic reasons, but for one sense of well being.
Maria SIna: For a recession to happen, many factors are at play. That’s why declaring a recession is often in the hands of national organizations that analyze business cycles. Like national recessions global ones also don’t have a clear cut definition. They happen when a large number of major economies are going through an economic slump. In our globalized economy, a recession in one place spells trouble for another. Knock on effects reverberate throughout the globe. And that’s what has analysts worried right now.
Sara J: Currently, a global recession is a major risk, but our current forecast has what we would call a growth recession. We do not have a contraction in the global economy, but we have subpar growth with rising unemployment.
Maria SIna: GDP growth in the global economy is slowing down. The International Monetary Fund projects that a third of the world economy will likely be in a technical recession next year.
The US and Eurozone are facing an especially gloomy outlook. In the US. Economic growth is declining to a fifth of its 2021 levels next year. In the eurozone, growth is almost completely stalling.
For many of us, the phrase global recession still conjures up images of publicly shamed bankers and people losing their houses. To understand the current economic downturn better, it’s worth revisiting what happened in 2008 during the financial crisis. It pushed the world’s banking system towards the edge of collapse and left borrowers no longer able to afford their homes.
And it all started with a housing bubble. In the US. A whole industry ballooned around giving people mortgages. Mortgage brokers eventually got greedy. They started giving out loans to people that didn’t make enough money to pay them back. Those mortgages were combined into big packages and sold to banks. Ultimately, the inevitable happened. Borrowers couldn’t pay their loans back and the house of cards collapsed, causing a banking crisis.
Bob H: The first recession was a recession that was essentially one that was built on fear of banks and mistrust between banks because they weren’t sure anymore which of the banks was solvent and which one wasn’t. So they stopped lending altogether.
Maria SIna: Banks had to be rescued from ruin by government bailouts, and the crisis spread beyond the United States. European banks had bought a lot of bad mortgages from the US, so they also collapsed and had to be bailed out by governments. Many European countries eventually could no longer pay their own debt. Government budgets were squeezed, resulting in years of austerity and dramatically impacting the lives of millions of Europeans. So how is the current economic downturn different this time around? Money isn’t the issue.
Bob H: There is no capital shortage. In fact, if anything, the banks and the capital markets are sitting on lots of money that at the moment they can’t really spend because there is nothing that comes into the EU economy.
Maria SIna: So this time the world isn’t short of cash, but it’s short of almost everything else. When the pandemic struck, the fragility of supply chains became apparent. Factories from Asia to Europe and North America halted production, sending the global economy into a freefall. As countries emerged from lockdowns, demand for goods and services returned faster than supply. Now, swelling orders have outstripped availability. Businesses across the economy have struggled to hire workers. Food and energy prices are on the rise. Adding to that, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse has closed shop. In China lockdowns continue to wreak havoc. Xi Jinping’s zero COVID policy aims to isolate every individual case of COVID 19. Its strict implementation means regular shutdowns make business and manufacturing extremely difficult.
Kimberley C: When they get waves. Entire cities are shut down and that affects the supply chain throughout the world.
Maria SIna: Now, shortages of one thing have turned into shortages of another. A scarcity of semiconductors has halted car manufacturing. And unlike during the US led financial crisis, it’s Europe that feels unique pressure now. With the world supply chains in trouble already one added factor made for the perfect storm on the continent. The war in Ukraine.
Maria D: Which woke us up to the realization that Europe is relying on its most important inputs for its production, namely energy, on a very, very unreliable partner.
Maria SIna: For decades, Russia was Europe’s main provider of gas, delivering almost half of the bloc’s gas supply. But that’s drastically changed this year as Europe has rushed to find alternative energy sources.
Sara J: Europe needs to reduce energy demand by 10%. That already means that we will get into an economy that produces produces much less.
Maria SIna: But it’s not just energy that’s become a casualty of the war. Ukraine is one of the biggest agricultural exporters in the world since the Russian invasion. Food prices are on the rise. For the European and for the global economy, supply shortages and a drastic rise in food and energy costs make for a toxic cocktail.
Bob H: If the demand stays the same and the supply over good falls and the price rises, if you have that across the economy as a whole in the labour market, in many goods markets, in energy markets and in food markets, then you have a generalised inflation. For the first time.
Maria SIna: The world is facing an inflation crisis. The US, the United Kingdom and the eurozone are especially feeling the price surge. In the EU, inflation is the highest it has ever been in the US, it’s at a 40 year high.
Christine L: High inflation is a major challenge for all of us.
Maria SIna: Around the world. Too much money is chasing too few goods. That means items we need for our day to day lives are getting more expensive. It’s also what makes this economic downturn so different from the last.
Maria D: This is a recession that is unlike perhaps the financial crisis, recession that was due to financial crisis that is being felt by every single individual simply because all of us have to use energy at home. And all of us understand that when inflation is high with the purchasing power of our salaries or of our income and of our wealth reduces.
Maria SIna: The cost of living crisis, confronting the world is now causing a shift in global economic policy making. Central bankers say they’ve had enough of rapid price rises.
Christine L: We took today’s decision and expect to raise interest rates further because inflation remains far too high and is likely to stay above our target for an extended period.
Jeremy Powell: We have both the tools that we need and the resolve it will take to restore price stability on behalf of American families and businesses. Price stability is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve and serves as the bedrock of our economy.
Maria SIna: In 2008, central banks in Europe and the US reduced interest rates to encourage banks to start lending and help economies weather the storm. This time they’re flipping the script. For every central bank that is currently cutting interest rates. There are now 25 that are raising them, according to Deutsche Bank, a ratio that hasn’t been seen in decades. By making it more expensive to buy a car, get a mortgage or use a credit card. They hope to reduce people’s spending and slow inflation. But the tools that will fix rising prices also stall economic growth.
Maria D: It means that we have two problems. We have both low growth and high prices, and therefore the policy makes that needs to address this crisis needs to be quite different. And also the policy mix is a little bit more awkward, if you like, in terms of meeting the two problems.
Maria SIna: Central banks are facing a difficult balancing act. Raising interest rates could further sink a rudderless economy. Doing nothing means letting inflation run loose.
Kimberley C: There are several real questions that will determine how the next year plays out. First, how effective are central banks in reducing the inflation without sending the economy into a worse recession that would be required? It’s very difficult to get monetary policy just right because there are substantial lags in the system. So what’s perfect for today policy wise, we often can’t tell until six months down the road.
Maria SInaAnd something else feels different about this economic downturn, especially in the world’s biggest economy, the United States. For many people, the word recession means worrying about losing your job. That’s because the two usually go hand in hand. In the US, GDP went down in 2008 and unemployment went up. This July the country’s unemployment rate was the lowest it has been in half a century and it has stayed exceptionally low since despite an economic downturn.
Kimberley C: So the labor market actually looks quite good, which is one of the confusing things about today’s economy. You have some indicators that look very positive and consistently so, and you have some indicators that are far more worrisome. But the labor market indicator in the US in particular is very strong. Unemployment is quite low, Labor force participation is good, job openings are high relative to the number of people seeking jobs. So this is a time of enormous labor market opportunity and strength for a lot of American workers.
Maria SIna: This is a unique time in the US. Companies can’t afford to lose employees because many of them are having problems finding workers in the first place. But the US is facing a paradox. Despite a strong job market, people are worried, especially those looking to start their careers.
Christine C: Current class of 2023 is certainly worried about the current economic situation. So about 50% of our respondents from one of our most recent surveys shared that they absolutely have some concerns and anxiety.
Maria SIna: Things are looking good and gloomy at the same time, and that is making Americans feel uneasy. Consumer sentiment is a measure that shows how people feel about the economy and whether they will spend or save their money. Right now, people are only feeling slightly more optimistic than during the 2008 recession. And what does that mean for the future of the US economy? The job numbers are looking much rosier than during the last economic downturn.
Riggs: But I’m getting comment from Ray LaBahn, “All this is informative but disconnected from the topic at hand, OriginClear.” Actually, I’m getting somewhere with this and I think it’s worthwhile. But let me go ahead and just, a lot of this, you know, already. So I’m just going to go ahead and fast forward here a little bit because there’s some good news at the very tail end of this that will, I think, give us some context and then we can comment on it. So thank you, Ray.
Indonesian Economist: So low is because it’s administered price there and and because that has kept that low the central bank has not been under so much pressure to high.
Maria SIna: The subsidies have amounted to a hefty bill for Indonesia’s government and might not be sustainable in the future. At the same time, rising commodity prices around the world have actually helped this economy. Indonesia’s coal exporters are bringing in record earnings. The country is looking at a promising 2023.
Indonesian Economist: So at 4.7%, I would still say that growth outlook is looking pretty resilient next year, especially when we talk about major economies entering recession.
Maria SIna: At the beginning of this video, we looked back on the recession of 2008 and we asked how this economic downturn will be different. What the experts we spoke to described was a crisis not triggered by banks, but one partially set off by war and by politics.
Kimberley C: There’s some things that are inevitable, like standing up for democracy as the Europeans and as Ukraine and as the United States are trying to do right now. I think, you know, the cost of that is not zero, right? But some things are worth paying a cost for. Of course, governments should do whatever they can to cushion their citizens from these costs. But I don’t think telling citizens that the cost is zero is realistic or true. And there are some things in life that are worth making a sacrifice for.
Maria SIna: With bank bailouts and regulation. Policymakers have the tools to react to the financial crisis. But much of what’s happening right now is outside of policymakers control.
Bob H: The mechanisms to address the supply side crisis are, you know, nothing more than invade China and force them to produce semiconductors, invade Russia, and force Putin to stop invading Ukraine and loosen energy supply and so on. And that’s obviously not going to happen. So we don’t really have tools in the normal state of affairs. We don’t have tools at the moment that could address the recession that we’re facing.
Maria SIna: While central banks intervene to stimulate the economy in 2008, they are adding to a downturn this time. The medicine against rising prices is also poison for the economy. And unlike the 2008 financial crisis, this downturn is having a much more obvious impact on our daily routines.
Maria D: Everybody understands that we cannot switch on the heating the coming winter as much as we did in other years, or we are going to see an exorbitant bill. Everybody who has a car, we have seen it in the run up to today, to the financial, in the run up to the energy crisis, how petrol was so expensive in filling up the car. So this is a crisis that I think dissipates across everybody in the society and therefore it’s much more felt. It’s not just about the economic impact. The households feel it. You feel it immediately in your in your household income.
Maria SIna: But there are also positive developments that run opposite to the financial crisis.
Christine C: We are in a moment where there is great talent shortage. And so even if we do go into a recession, there are still lots of jobs that are available that are out there.
Maria SIna: We are at a unique inflection point in the global economy compared to the last crisis. The one we are facing now is much more multifaceted. War in Ukraine, an energy crisis, soaring living costs and widespread pessimism are combining into an unpredictable economic concoction. And that’s all from this business beyond episode. If you enjoyed it, please hit like and subscribe and check out one of our other videos. Until next time and take care.
End of presentation
Water — The Emerging Asset
Riggs: A lot of this, of course, is stuff we know. But here’s what’s going on. This recession is a forced error, right? 2008 was a result of very bad lending practices. 2022 going into 2023 has a lot to do with very rickety systems. I’m not going to give a position on this war business, but it’s definitely a mismanaged situation and the poor Europeans are paying the cost in terms of energy. My point is, is that all these existing asset classes are highly unpredictable right now.
I try and invest in, for example, oil ETFs and then it goes sideways. I’m like, “Wait, isn’t oil in high demand?” And then I get out and I try something else. It’s very hard to invest. It’s very hard to find something that is not affected by geopolitics. This is a geopolitical recession from, and again not taking a position, all the COVID stuff that went down, what the world chose to do was a geopolitical decision. And so here we are.
What I’m trying to say here is that I am so excited about water being this new asset class. Why? Because it’s emerging just at a time when the others are just sort of shaking in their boots and having a hard time and to stay the course. And obviously they’re trying to figure out what to do. But then these giant bailouts and so forth. And it’s going to be pretty interesting, to say the least.
Incubating Water Innovations
While, at the same time we, with our water incubations, right; because we’re building OriginClear as an incubator, the first incubator in the water industry ever. Because the water industry grows from mom and pops growing and then getting bought up by the big guys, that’s how they do it. But high tech style incubation does make sure that technologies get put in there. And so that’s what we’re doing, is we’re bringing new approaches, technologies, financial systems, etc., to bear. And that is a completely different way of looking at the water industry and creating these, creating water as an investable asset. And that is so exciting. It’s the right time for water.
Now, I have a couple of questions here. Keith Routen, “Is supply chain definitely affecting OriginClear?” No, exactly the opposite. What we have is a real strength, competitive strength. Why? Because our materials are low tech. Those those high density polyethylene or polypropylene enclosures are US sourced. They don’t have to come from abroad, so we don’t have complex chips and so forth. It’s pretty simple stuff. So we’re actually hurting our competitors, which are in steel, fiberglass, concrete and other more complex systems when it comes to, for example, pump stations.
So we’re very happy with the supply chain situation. Now, it’s true that there are some spot shortages in areas like pumps where we’re seeing delays of 120 days let’s say. But that’s starting to ease. It’s starting to go away. So I’m not going to, I’m not foreseeing supply chain problems by 2023 in OriginClear. All right.
New To The Street
So here we are. The night before we were at Tony’s DiNapoli and here we are at Tony’s DiNapoli having a nice dinner. There’s Vince Caruso, the owner of New To The Street. On the right there is Charlie Davanzo and yours truly and Ken having a nice meal.
And then the next morning I was looking down for my from my hotel and looking down at the Nasdaq. These are the trading floors and right there in that rotunda is where we ended up being taped.
So and here we are inside that, what’s called the market site. It’s kind of cold.
This is Jane who was interviewing us. And there’s the actual interview. We will be giving you a clip from that next week.
Here is the release that came out this morning. A series of six monthly interviews. This time it was kind of myself. In the future, I it might be just me, just Ken or us together again, whatever. And with, again, important news. Remember that we have some very important news coming out about our annual report, for example. We have a spinoff that’s being set up with our pump station business that’s booming. And so this gets syndicated to Newsmax, Fox Business, Bloomberg TV and a bunch of streaming platforms. So each month will be making a report and it goes out. We could never have done this before because it wasn’t realistic to even claim that we were getting there. Okay, so that’s it.
Freewheeling Discussion
So with that, I’m going to invite Mr. Ken in and… Ray, “Do you buy or fabricate RO systems?” We fabricate the RO systems. We have a comprehensive fabrication. Go to www.progressivewater.com and you will see our systems well, there we are. So with that.
Ken: Here we are.
Riggs: Just bring us to “The Free Wheeling Discussion,” which is necessarily a, it’s not free wheeling in one key area. But what is important to really underline here is that more and more our vision of the, like the breakup of AT&T, the government breakup of centralized water, is creating opportunities. We were among the very first to see this. And not only did we invest in technology in 2018 with the compact systems, but then starting in 2020, we started solving the financial issue. Which, people in our industry and the tech industry are saying, “We’ve got a problem. People don’t have capital.” And did you see, one reason why I played that Deutsche Welle report was it was saying there’s lots of money looking to be spent.
Ken: There’s lots of money. It’s not necessarily looking to be spent by the small business owner, right?
Riggs: Oh, they want to put it into big projects, right? The banks want to put, you know, like, “Okay, I need to find a place to put a half a billion dollars or $1,000,000,000.” Like not a problem.
Small Investors
Ken: How many investors, though went to cash? Look, I’m speaking to these guys, a lot of guys went to… A lot of guys who could lick their wounds, they went to, a lot of guys went to cash and big money certainly went to cash. So, if you think that the big institutional money were the guys who took a 70% dive in Facebook and Tesla, think again, OK. You know, they went, maybe they didn’t go short, but they certainly closed out their long positions at some of these highs earlier in the year because there were a million signs that this was coming. Right.
Unfortunately, the average retail investor and some of the smaller investors, they get, they get stuck in that loop of listening to Jim Cramer, right? And he’s saying, “Everything’s great, you got to buy the market.” And they’re going, “Okay.” You know, because they’re not, they’re not trained and just and rightly so. They’re not trained to watch the, watch the global trends. What I love talking about and Jane was a great, great interview, and it’s funny because she got it right away. And it’s always fun, right? Because sometimes you find yourself having to explain the concept a couple of times, she got it immediately.
To, to expand on your point. What we’re doing today was impossible without the marriage of financial technology and miniaturized containerized systems, right? The minute you dig a hole, it’s absolute risk, it’s absolute default risk. You cannot do a water as a service model, a water as a service model unless it’s a city, a municipality, someone with, zones who’s default proof.
Riggs: Yeah, if you’re Procter Gamble or Coca-Cola.
Ken: Yeah, exactly, right? So if you’re…and they guess what? They don’t need you. They bought it, you know. So and I was explaining, you know, so Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, all those guys who would be fabulous for a commercial, in other words, non-municipal non you know, kind of private sector use of this modality. They don’t need the money, you know.
So unfortunately, 90 plus percent of the water pollution is not coming from Anheuser-Busch or Pepsi. It’s coming from the smaller end users who have that “It’s the money conundrum.” And you know, I’m really looking forward. You know, we got, we kind of touched on the subject in this week’s interview, but to be able to kind of continue to expand on that in pieces, I think will be very interesting.
Water On Demand Programs
Riggs: Yeah. And there’s things coming. For example, you know, the Water On Demand pilot programs. I’m going to make a note to report on that next week because we are, we’re well along with some of these pilot programs. It’s, there’s no lack of of excitement by these potential clients, but we’re having to put in place, like they went, “Oh, well, what about my buyout option?” “Oh cripes, we’ve got to put together a buyout option.” So, a lot of legal work is going on. That’s part of what we’re doing.
Ken: Measure twice, cut once.
Riggs: Well, no. You cannot do a 15 year service contract. That puts you upside down.
Ken: Right, exactly. So it’s measure ten times cut once, right? I got it. Yeah.
Next Week
Riggs: You know we’re being very, very deliberate. And Colin Sherman joined us as project engineer. And I think, for Water On Demand. So I’m going to bring him on. It’ll be a great show. So next week we will have some clips from the, from the taping. We’ll discuss the pilot programs for Water On Demand. We’ll discuss Colin Sherman, his role as he comes on. He’s getting rid of his prior assignment and he’ll be ending up full time pretty soon. And he’s just a fantastic project engineer because he’s got to take over that. There’s a lot of work there to be done.
So we are rolling things out and there’s also going to be very interesting announcements coming about how we’re creating more value inside Water On Demand with intellectual property. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. So with that, I’m going to say, “Bid you all a fond adieu.”
And I’m going to put it up on screen. How you get a hold of Ken. There you go. Oc.gold/ken gets you there or just email invest@originclear.com. And with that, I think I can call it a day, my friend.
Ken: Or a night, as it were.
Riggs: Well it’s a day in Hawaii, okay?
Ken: That’s true. It’s like lunchtime for me. You know, this is like it’s only half a day today.
Riggs: Ken you’re doing a great job. Thank you for the hard work and let’s keep on rockin. If you’re interested in what’s going on. Please schedule with Ken. Thank you so much, everyone.
Ken: Good night folks.