Month: October 2013

Role of the feds in the financial crisis

Back in September, Peter Wallison said Five Years Later: Don’t Mention the Feds – Washington and the media are peddling a narrative that discounts the government’s role in the financial crisis.

He makes the same point I’ve mentioned before. Specifically, that federal legislation required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy subprime loans. Over time, the portion of their acquisitions that had to be subprime was increased.

There is a lot of blame to go around. The point I’m trying to make is the big banks don’t get 100% of it.

Continue reading “Role of the feds in the financial crisis”

North Dakota wind farm sells electricity from first phase of turbines

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Since I’ve been talking about progress of the slice-and-dice operation near Hettinger, N.D. in the southern part of the state, it’s only fair to mention they have made a big step forward. The site owner signed a contract with Montana-Dakota Utilities for the sale of all the electricity from the first phase of construction.

Best details of several articles I’ve seen this on the deal can be found at North American Wind Power:  Wind Works Signs PPA For Thunder Spirit Project in North Dakota.

Continue reading “North Dakota wind farm sells electricity from first phase of turbines”

Free E-book to help you cope with the massive change around us. Oh, did I mention the price?

If you are trying to sort out all the massive change around us, you have just got to check out Look, Lead, Love, Learn: Four Steps to Better Business, a Better Life – and Conquering Complexity in the Process by Bill Sheridan.

On 10-29 and 10-30 it is free at Amazon.

How can we possible cope with all the massive change around us? One way is to open our brain to learn and be willing to constantly be learning more.

In an era of great change, the most important skill we will possess going forward is the ability to learn new skills.

Why not just coast to retirement? Continue reading “Free E-book to help you cope with the massive change around us. Oh, did I mention the price?”

Tolerance for all the serious disruptions from drilling depend on whether you get a check

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Having a well drilled near your house generates a lot of disruption. There is noise from the drilling, with something on the order of 2,000 truck trips and round-the-clock lights. I’ve been told you can feel the rumble in the ground when fracking is going on near you.

An article in the Wall Street Journal explains Energy Boom Puts Wells in America’s Backyards.

Continue reading “Tolerance for all the serious disruptions from drilling depend on whether you get a check”

Why shale is such a misunderstood game changer

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Million Dollar Way points to a must-read article at Rigzone:  Kemp: Why Shale Plays really Are Different.

The article describes why perennial skeptics have been so severely wrong about Bakken shale oil, why the rapid decline rate is actually attractive, and explains shale oil is more manufacturing-like than conventional oil.

The “optimists” were conservative

Continue reading “Why shale is such a misunderstood game changer”

Mali update – 10-25-13

Haven’t noticed much news from Mali lately, but that is probably a reflection on my observation skills, or lack thereof.

10-25 – France 24 – French forces to combat Mali ‘terrorists’, says Hollande – Troops from France, Mali, and the U.N. stepped up operations on Thursday in northern Mali against Islamists forces. The goal is to provide stability in advance of legislative elections the end of November.

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Pronunciation guide to Bakken and Eagle Ford

The point of this blog is to learn, so I have no problem admitting I have yet to catch on to lots of things, like how to pronounce Bakken and Eagle Ford.

Rockin’ the Bakken

Learned on my recent trip to North Dakota that Bakken is pronounced with an ‘ah’. It isn’t Bacon or Back-en.

Continue reading “Pronunciation guide to Bakken and Eagle Ford”

More background on Bakken drilling including well costs and EURs

Million Dollar Way points to a presentation by Continental Resources from October 2013 available on this page.

May as well disclose this is not an investment site. It would be foolish to make investment decisions based on what I say.

What I will do is comment on a few tidbits in the presentation that expand my knowledge with the idea that people reading my blog would likely learn as well.

Drilling costs

Falling costs of drilling are described on slide eight. Here’s the disclosed info: Continue reading “More background on Bakken drilling including well costs and EURs”

Scratching my head over that $13 billion settlement

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

I’m confused by the reports that JP Morgan is close to settling most of the claims against the bank by the federal government in return for a payment of $13,000,000,000.

On one hand…

There are several parts of the long list of Morgan scandals that fully justify punishment, in my opinion. Consider manipulating Libor or prices in the energy market as just two examples.

Since the options of either public flogging or liberal application of feathers preceded by tar are not possible with a corporation, a decent fine would be a good start.

Continue reading “Scratching my head over that $13 billion settlement”

Superb photos of Bakken – 9-13

Vern Whitten has superb photos of Bakken oil projects and communities. Having just returned from a road trip to Williston, I can appreciate his work much more now.

Here are two batches of his photos from September 2013:

(Hat tip: Million Dollar Way)

We just gotta’ kill eagles to save ’em

That’s the argument Mr. Robert Bryce hears presented to him to support the idea that it’s acceptable for wind farms to off eagles.  It seems the reduction of carbon dioxide from the slice-and-dice operation will benefit eagles and all wildlife so it is okay to set up wind farms.

He explains the fallacy of the argument in an article in the Wall Street Journal – Fighting Climate Change by Killing Eagles.

Mr. Bryce says the carbon reduction from wind farms…

is equivalent to a baby’s burp in a hurricane

Continue reading “We just gotta’ kill eagles to save ’em”

5 charts that show the dramatic impact of the energy revolution

Carpe Diem has some great graphs that show how much the energy world has changed in the last five years – Five charts that help put “Saudi America’s” shale revolution into perspective.

1 – Weekly US crude oil production ’89 to ’13

Continue reading “5 charts that show the dramatic impact of the energy revolution”

4 year forecast for North Dakota oil production

The Director of the Department of Mineral Resources, Lynn Helms, thinks oil production will be 1.6 million bopd by 2017. That is from an article a month ago in the Dickinson Press, Helms: State’s daily oil production will double by ’17. That is a forecast four years out.

Newer preliminary production in August ’13 was 911K bopd. That is more current info than was available during the interview. So 1.6M bopd would be just over 75% increase from the August amount.

A new, built-from-the-ground-up news organization funded by founder of E-Bay

News broke this week that the founder of E-Bay is starting a news organization with major involvement by the reporter who broke so many stories about the NSA spying fiasco.

It will be a brand new, digital-only, full-scope media outlet. Plans are it will cover news, sports, and business in addition to hard-hitting investigative journalism.

Will be funded with an initial $250 million dollar investment.

Pierre Omidyar, the founder of E-Bay, was one of the people shopped as a possible buyer for The Washington Post earlier this year. Jeff Bezos bought the Post for reported $250 million.

Another frontier is open.

Mr. Omidyar decided to put the money he would have otherwise used to buy the Post into something completely new.

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Creative use of MOOCs: Keep intro or difficult courses *off* your GPA

The education frontier is open. This has odd implications.

In some academic fields, GPA is everything. This creates pressure to take easy courses and avoid difficult courses outside your major.

However, if you want to get knowledgeable (when that concept diverges from getting educated), you might need to learn a bit about the sciences, or computer programming, or philosophy but the drawback is it might hit your GPA. Or you might want an intro to an area before you go on-the-GPA-record.

If that is the case, think about taking a massive open online course.

Continue reading “Creative use of MOOCs: Keep intro or difficult courses *off* your GPA”