Raiding customer’s bank accounts in Cyprus is very dangerous

There is danger in the air.

Over the weekend, the Cyprus government levied a one-time ‘tax’ on all bank deposits. The rate is 9.9% on accounts over €100,000, which is about $129,000. Tax on accounts under that amount is 6.75%.

Why the tax?

Their national banking system needs a major bailout. Conditions imposed by the European regulators require depositors to take a hit in order to fund the bailout.

What’s the danger?

Loss of depositor confidence.

Continue reading “Raiding customer’s bank accounts in Cyprus is very dangerous”

Let’s put 5.4B gallons of water used in ND oil drilling in perspective

5.4 billion gallons a year.

That much water can do one of the following:

  • Drill about 1,800 wells in a year that will produce around 85 million barrels of oil in their first 12 months of production, or
  • Provide one-seventh (14.2%) of the water needed for agricultural irrigation in North Dakota for one year, or
  • Provide 18 months of water needed in a Midwest city of 50,000 people, or
  • Provide 3 months of water needed for the 57 golf courses in Palm Springs California. Yes, 13.5 weeks.

Drilling 1,800 wells sounds like a reasonable use of 5.4B gallons of water.

Continue reading “Let’s put 5.4B gallons of water used in ND oil drilling in perspective”

How much working, success, and capital gains do we want?

“A tax on income is the price you pay for working; a tax on profits, the price you pay for success; and a tax on capital gains, the price you pay for taking risks that work out.”

That is Steve Forbes’ great one-sentence explanation of taxes in Forbes magazine. When you tax something you get less of it. Here’s a few questions:

Continue reading “How much working, success, and capital gains do we want?”

North Dakota oil production drops in January ‘13 because of bad weather

January production dropped to 738,022 BOPD from revised 770,111 in December and preceding high of 749,095 in October.

Comments follow the graph:

 1-13 production

  Continue reading “North Dakota oil production drops in January ‘13 because of bad weather”

The energy frontier is open – Texas edition

The western part of North Dakota is not the only place in the country where every business is looking for help. The same thing is happening in the Eagle Ford and Permian fields in Texas.

Check out Bloomberg’s Eagle Ford Shale Boom Fuels ‘Madhouse’ in South Texas Counties report.

Previously closed businesses have reopened. Just about every store in town has a ‘help wanted’ sign.

Here are a few predictions or estimates for the Eagle Ford and Permian field production levels: Continue reading “The energy frontier is open – Texas edition”

Ethanol fail

When can we start calling it foolishness to burn corn in our cars?

Via Meadia’s post Biofuel Boondoggle Just Won’t Quit begins:

Corn-based ethanol starves the world’s poor and increases greenhouse gas emissions

Standards set by Congress require a certain amount of ethanol be used. Here’s the required amount this year compared to production and expected demand:

Continue reading “Ethanol fail”

More on selective enforcement of laws against killing raptors

I’ve written several articles on the toll that wind farms take on golden eagles, bald eagles, and other migratory birds.

Mr. Robert Bryce has another article in the Wall Street Journal – Windmills vs. Birds.

Golden and Bald Eagles along with sundry other raptors aren’t the only casualties.

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Can we finally bury the Hubbert curve? It keeps getting more wrong. Peak Oil #20

Check out this great graph from The Economist: Peak oil.

I don’t understand the copyright rules well enough to include the graph in my post. In case their article goes away, you can also see the graph at Carpe Diem – Chart of the day: Peak oil.

Let me describe the graph.

Continue reading “Can we finally bury the Hubbert curve? It keeps getting more wrong. Peak Oil #20”

Unrestricted slaughter of golden eagles is perfectly okay…

…if you operate a wind farm, that is.

I was mildly irritated with a wind farm in Minnesota that received permission to apply for a permit to set up a wind farm that will kill up to 15 eagles a year. I discussed the issue here.

Then I researched a Los Angeles Times article that reports U.S. probes golden eagles’ deaths at DWP wind farm

Now I’m even more irritated.

That article said the DWP wind farm in the Tehachapie Mountains has killed 8 golden eagles in the two years ending February 2012. That’s four a year done in by the 90 turbines in the wind farm.

Four a year is small potatoes compared to the staggering toll at the Altamont Pass wind farm in California.

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Mali update – 3-10-13

3-4 – Wall Street Journal – U.S. Boosts War Role in Africa

The U.S. drone operations in Mali run from the base in Niger are actively feeding intel and targeting data to the French. The article says the Reaper drones provided info for about 60 airstrikes in the preceding week.

3-6 – Wall Street Journal – France to Start Drawing Down Troops in Mali

France with reduce troop levels starting early in April. They lost their fourth soldier in country.

There are 2,000 troops from Chad. Previous reports indicate many of them were trained by U.S. special forces.

While pondering the wisdom of those who can prevent the next financial crisis…

…check out the wisdom of politicians and regulators evidenced before the last crisis.

Read The Housing Bubble and the Limits of Human Knowledge , by Alex Pollock.

The fallacy in play today is that the regulators who didn’t see our current financial crisis coming (or helped facilitate it) are now wise & bright enough that they will be able to detect any future crisis far enough in advance to prevent them. It’s quite obvious that is the operating concept driving laws and regulations for several years now.

Continue reading “While pondering the wisdom of those who can prevent the next financial crisis…”

Failed predictions of resource exhaustion – Peak Oil #19

Carpe Diem calls attention to the silliness of many past predictions of our dire future in his post, Great moments in failed predictions of resource depletion.

I’m not sure which is larger – the magnitude of error or arrogance from the cited prognosticators. 

His discussion starts with:

The idiocy of “peak oil” and other claims of pending resource depletion have a long history, dating in many cases back to the 1800s. ”Peak nitwitery” experienced an especially strong revival in the 1960s and 1970s, thanks to Paul Ehrlich and his 1968 book “The Population Bomb.”

Continue reading “Failed predictions of resource exhaustion – Peak Oil #19”

Want to improve the lives of people at the bottom? Then provide economic freedom.

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

“My family and I have succeeded by following the path to freedom. But that path is on the verge of vanishing. What we’re starting to see here in America now is a growth in the size and the scope of government that is now starting to look like the governments that we left behind.”

Here is how to lift people up the economic ladder:

Advancing economic freedom is the best way to improve human well-being, especially those at the bottom.

That’s the path to moving out of poverty and economic success. Check out this video from LIBRE Initiative:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNHywGefNnQ&feature=player_embedded]

Continue reading “Want to improve the lives of people at the bottom? Then provide economic freedom.”