Would you buy shares in a company if its stock certificates fell freely from the sky every couple days? I doubt it.

But that is what exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as PowerShares Water Resources (PHO) and others are suggesting you do: buy shares in these funds because the world is running out of (fresh, potable, whatEVER) water.

You might get an argument from the poor folks in Northern Colorado. Then again, once Cassandras get a hold of an idea, all the facts and publicity in the world aren't enough to change their minds.

You'd think we would have learned the lesson by now. Weren't we supposed to be running out of oil? Or was it running out of cheap oil? Then it was peak oil. Given the rate we are finding new fields and fracking old ones, we are going to have to change the expression to PEEK! Oil!!

Much the same can be said for natural gas, which now has attracted the ire of envirowhackjobs around the world. Never mind that loosening the chokehold OPEC has on the United States and Russia has on Europe has made us walk away from the Syrian "crisis."

But back to water. As usual, by simply extending demand trend lines into the future, well-paid bureaucrats after your tax dollars are petrified we are running out of water. Never mind that even now, many local governments provide water at no marginal cost (it is "free"). Never mind studies that show even the most trivial charge per gallon slashes waste and demand by huge amounts. (Ever had to buy a token in order to shower at a campground in our National Parks?) To these bureaucrats, supply is all that matters ... never demand.

We are not running out of potable water and there is no freshwater crisis, except in the usual sub Saharan and Asian Socialist towns.

However, there is an opportunity to make money on companies that purify and monitor water use. Many of these companies are best bought thru ETFs like PHO, which I mentioned at the start of this article.

So ironically, you should look at PHO and similar ETFs, but not for the reasons the water Cassandras tell you!