Month: February 2013

North Dakota oil production back to record level for 12-12

December production increased to 704,360 bopd from revised 670,850 in November (5.0% increase) and up from revised 684,233 in October. That’s a net increase of 2.9% over two months.

Statewide stats here. Director’s Cut here.

Million Dollar Way has various stat data for last five months and highlights of the Director’s Cut.

I graphed the monthly production. Also calculated average annual production by year. I’m particularly amazed at the trend of production by year.  Here are the graphs:

Continue reading “North Dakota oil production back to record level for 12-12”

Increase in Crude By Rail shows flexibility in economy – capitalism solves problems

When I started paying attention to the huge changes in energy production about a year and a half ago, one of the possible obstacles in North Dakota was the lack of pipelines to get the oil from fields to refineries in the Gulf Coast. The lack of capacity could constrain production and slow down drilling because there was no way to ship the oil. There wasn’t any way to store it for a couple of years until pipelines could be built.

Has that crippling problem stopped drilling?

No.

What happened?

Capitalism solved the problem.

Continue reading “Increase in Crude By Rail shows flexibility in economy – capitalism solves problems”

An economist decides to break up with his girlfriend after a quantitative cost-benefit analysis of the relationship

I don’t do humor, unless there is a good economic point to be made.  I just about fell out of my chair on this one.

Here is the start of the economist’s talk with his soon-to-be-former-sweetheart: Continue reading “An economist decides to break up with his girlfriend after a quantitative cost-benefit analysis of the relationship”

What economic system has lifted humanity out of the dirt?

(Cross-post from my other blog Freedom Is Moral.)

That would be capitalism.

I, for one, am thrilled to not live as my great-great-grandparents did. I’m not into subsistence agriculture, loosing half my children in their infancy, or facing a life expectancy of 30 years.

John Mackey has expanded that idea in his book, Conscious Capitalism.

Carpe Diem has a quote from the author in their post, Quotation of the day: Capitalism has lifted humanity out of the dirt and is greatest value creator in history of the world Continue reading “What economic system has lifted humanity out of the dirt?”

Making sense of the radical change surrounding us – a long-term perspective – 2

The change overwhelming us is simultaneously exciting, frightening, thrilling, unsettling, clear, and confused.  We have a scary and exciting future with incredible opportunities that we can only vaguely see.

How to make sense of it?

Two writers more than all others have helped me as I slowly sort things out: Seth Godin and Walter Russell Mead.

I’d like to highlight a few articles from Mr. Mead to give a sense of the major trends facing us. He regularly refers to the breakdown of the “blue model.”

The way we’ve done things since World War II isn’t working anymore. None of us have any idea today what the replacement way of doing things will look like.

Previous post provided a deep introduction from one of Mr. Mead’s articles..

For a very long read that provides deep explanation, check out The Once and Future Liberalism.

The article goes into great detail about the factors that have collapsed the ‘blue model’ in the private sector. The government sector has yet to deal with this: Continue reading “Making sense of the radical change surrounding us – a long-term perspective – 2”

Mali update – 2-10-13 – The ‘fun’ part is over while the war has just begun

Some of the news of the last week –

2-2 – The Guardian – Inside Gao where Arab jihadis took bloody sharia retribution on Mali’s black Africans

More stories are surfacing of the brutality of the occupation. In addition, the punishments appear to have been dispensed on an ethnic basis: Continue reading “Mali update – 2-10-13 – The ‘fun’ part is over while the war has just begun”

Role of the government in generating the financial crisis

(Cross-post from my other blog, Freedom Is Moral)

“[…] many of the financial institutions that contributed to the problem were crony capitalist. Business leaders can have confidence in the working of free markets. It is government interference in markets that they should fear.”

John A. Allison

That’s the opening quote in Pablo Paniagua’s review of Mr. Allison’s book, The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy’s Only Hope

Mr. Allison was a long-serving CEO of BB&T Bank. He saw the interference of government in the banking industry up close and personal.

Those icky, greedy bankers and icky greedy Wall Street financiers played a role in our current mess, but minor compared to the interference and misdirection and forced distortions arising from various federal agencies.

An overview of the mess we are in: Continue reading “Role of the government in generating the financial crisis”

Have you noticed the new unit of measure for large oil fields is “Bakkens”?

I’ve noticed a fun trend. In discussions of undeveloped oil fields where fracking could open up huge production the potential size of the field is compared to Bakken. Thus, a new unit of measure – how many Bakkens are in the new field.

Three examples.

Continue reading “Have you noticed the new unit of measure for large oil fields is “Bakkens”?”

California has two-thirds of the shale oil reserves in the U.S.

The New York Times noticed the amount of shale reserves in California and wrote a major article:  Vast Oil Reserve May Now Be Within Reach, and Battle Heats Up.

The billion dollar question – do we in California have the wisdom to safely tap the economic growth, tens of thousands of jobs (if not a hundred thousand), and a couple billion of state tax revenue every year for the next couple of decades that shale oil could provide?

Two key comments from the article:

Continue reading “California has two-thirds of the shale oil reserves in the U.S.”

Making sense of the radical change surrounding us – a long-term perspective – 1

The change overwhelming us is simultaneously exciting, frightening, thrilling, unsettling, clear, and confused.  We have a scary and exciting future with incredible opportunities that we can only vaguely see.

How to make sense of it?

Two writers more than all others have helped me as I slowly sort things out: Seth Godin and Walter Russell Mead.

I’d like to highlight a few articles from Mr. Mead to give a sense of the major trends facing us. He regularly refers to the breakdown of the “blue model.”

The way we’ve done things since World War II isn’t working anymore. The breakdown will continue. The challenge is to figure out how to rearrange the economy and our society into something new. None of us have any idea today what that “new” thing is. But we can see the old model is breaking down.

In Life After Blue, he provides a good summary: Continue reading “Making sense of the radical change surrounding us – a long-term perspective – 1”

“Tragedy of Fraud” e-book now available at Amazon

(Cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update.)

“Tragedy of Fraud – The Ripple Effects from Fraud and the Wages Earned” describes the tragic consequences from fraud.

There are ripple effects that spread out to harm innocent bystanders.  The perpetrator draws a wide range of well-deserved wages that will be paid in full.

The book looks at two fraud incidents to learn what happens after a fraud is discovered. One took place in a local megachurch and the other in the mayor’s office of a small city.

The book closes with a discussion of the fraud triangle. That’s the idea that three components need to be present for a fraud to take place – opportunity, motivation, and rationalization. There are steps an organization can take to reduce those factors.

You can find the book at Amazon here.

This book is a compilation of blogs posts that have been previously published at Nonprofit Update and Attestation Update. The posts have been edited slightly and reorganized for easier reading.

Major sections of the book: Continue reading ““Tragedy of Fraud” e-book now available at Amazon”

Value and satisfaction are defined by the consumer

Here is the first entry in the current year Economics Music Video Contest from Fayetteville State University.

Big books shows value is determined by the consumer.

Do you want to make a fortune? Figure out what consumers want and provide it.

Check this out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLjiT5tt-WVpqPX1roEXtp8kttcHYVEv4g&feature=player_embedded&v=aAHR8NEpnP8]

link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLjiT5tt-WVpqPX1roEXtp8kttcHYVEv4g&feature=player_embedded&v=aAHR8NEpnP8

A couple of fun lines: Continue reading “Value and satisfaction are defined by the consumer”

Selective enforcement for killing protected birds

Previous post mentioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave permission for a permit to move forward which would allow a wind farm in Goodhue County, Minnesota to kill up to 8 or 15 eagles a year for the next 30 years.

In addition to the uneconomical and unintended-consequence-causing energy that is produced, we are staring at a highly selective enforcement of federal laws against killing eagles and migratory birds.

Official permission to kill eagles?

Continue reading “Selective enforcement for killing protected birds”

Drop in rig count does not mean a drop in completed well count

Here’s another comment explaining why we are seeing a drop in the rig count at the same time as completed wells are increasing.

From Eagle Ford Shale – Lower Rig Count, But More Drilling in 2013 – Schlumberger.

Public companies have quarterly conference calls where they discuss their operations and outlooks. That releases to the investing community their thinking.

In fourth quarter conference call… Continue reading “Drop in rig count does not mean a drop in completed well count”

Mali update – 2-3-13

Updates from the last week. Don’t know how long I’ll keep posting these summaries, since they are a bit off-topic for my blog. For the moment, plan to continue them a little longer.

1-29 – Wall Street Journal – French and Malian Forces Retake Timbuktu.

The militants (that’s the WSJ style definition) left Timbuktu before the troops arrived, which allowed the French forces to retake the city without a battle. There are now 3,500 French troops on the ground.

Continue reading “Mali update – 2-3-13”