Utility stocks- could they be the "new blue chips"?

“Utilities are the classic defensive investment. Generally slow-growing, but high-yielding and inexpensive relative to earnings, utilities are the traditional dividend value stock. Now Wall Street seems to have turned on the utilities business. Should you listen? This is how the article Why Wall Street hates Utilities begins.

I really liked the simplicity and straightforwardness of this article on utility stocks. I agree on just about all the author said, but they are acting particularly poor in this market.  So I thought it would make sense to focus on the bear case since the article makes a good bull case.

1. In this deep recession/depression people won’t pay  their utility bills and the Government will not allow the power turned off, therefore utilities will cut their dividends.
2. People will move in with one another to survive thus less demand.
3. Rate hikes and growth are gone.
4. Interest rates will skyrocket from the U.S. government unprecedented printing of money to combat the coronavirus.

These are the negatives but there is one glaring bull case that the author did not mention.  We are in an era of zero interest rates with 10,000 people a day turning 60.  People need income and the governments have embarked on financial repression with the policy of low rates. I personally think utilities could be the “new blue chips.” Let’s wait until the earnings black out period ends to see if insiders agree. In the meanwhile, I’m putting some money to work in the XLU and Dominion Resources.