Thursday, December 20, 2012

Thursday Links -- Not About The Bakken

WSJ Links

Section D: Where Dickens slept. I'm staring to move into my "Dickens phase" of reading. I doubt if I will read any of his novels, but the biographies and anthologies are very, very interesting.

Section C: Oil futures get supply surprise.
Domestic demand for distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose 20% from a week ago amid a surprise 1.1 million-barrel drop in stockpiles of the fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Analysts had expected inventories to increase.
Many homes and businesses in the Northeast still rely on heating oil in the winter months. The surge in usage fueled concerns that refiners will need to ramp up production to meet demand. Distillate stockpiles in the Northeast stand at 117 million barrels, the lowest level on record for this time of year.
"It's all distillate," said Carl Larry, head of trading advisor Oil Outlooks and Opinions, regarding oil's rise Wednesday.
"The issue is, are we going to have enough supply to meet that demand?" 
By the way: Bakken condensates are a significant piece of Bakken production.

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Section B:

Wow! I had suggested this might happen. Companies with less than 50 employees, but flirting with 50, may indeed avoid ObamaCare by splitting into two companies. Now there is anecdotal evidence this might occur:
That is because his plant, with sales of about $1.6 million for 2012, currently employs 40 full-time workers, mostly low-paid employees who monitor the factory equipment. If sales were to continue to rise, the plant could, conceivably, employ 50 full-time workers in 2014.
Under the new health-care law, the Affordable Care Act, businesses with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees will be required, starting in that year, to offer workers health insurance or potentially pay a penalty.
The expense, he says, would drive up the cost of his labor. So he doesn't want to let employment at the factory reach that number.
"I'll be hammered for having more people at work," says Mr. Schanstra, who took over the firm when his father died in 2003.
Splitting the business into two would be a "headache," he acknowledges. But with fewer than 50 full-time equivalent employees in each half of this business, he hopes to avoid paying the penalties that otherwise could amount to at least $40,000 a year. His firm hasn't offered health-insurance benefits since 2003, when premiums jumped 50%, bringing his yearly outlay for coverage for his staff of 20 people to about $40,000 total.
You know, $2,000 for health insurance in the greatest country in the world really isn't too much to ask. As long as $1,800 goes for medical care and not for administrative costs.

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Lego's brisk sales defy trend. My younger daughter and I grew up with Lego while stationed overseas. I have probably followed the Lego story as well as anyone. I remember vividly the year (although I forget "which" year) the company decided to be serious about marketing their products. And, wow. Seemingly overnight everything changed for that company. 

A love letter begets dolls: entrepreneurial success.  Uglydolls. Wow. 

Camaro output heads south of the border to GM Michigan plant -- the Canadian Auto Workers are, well, should we say, not happy?
Canadian Auto Workers President Ken Lewenza criticized GM for its decision and called on Canadian government officials to hold the country's 156.1 million shares in the auto maker forever. Canada was given a 9% stake in GM in exchange for providing the auto maker bailout funding in 2009. Mr. Lewenza said the Camaro move will lead to the loss of about 1,000 jobs in Oshawa.
"General Motors has once again shown a complete and utter disregard for its workers and also Canadians in general, whose tax dollars kept the company out of bankruptcy," Mr. Lewenza said in a statement.
And so it goes.

8 comments:

  1. "...greatest country in the world"

    In what aspect?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cher; Madonna; The Beach Boys; Army-Navy football rivalry, Notre Dame-USC football rivalry; the Bakken; Harvard University; Yale University; #1 in Nobel Prizes; #1 in Olympics; the American farmer; roughnecks; truck drivers; rail network 2nd to none; the US Air Force; the US Army; the US Marines; the US Coast Guard; Alabama; California Coast; James Dean; Jack London; Mark Twain; John Steinbeck; Napa Wine; Coors beer; Starbucks; Boeing; F-15; the USS Ronald Reagan; cute babies; OxiClean; FedEx; UPS; UAW; ObamaCare; General Electric CAT scanners; Apple Computer; Google; Microsoft; wind energy; solar energy; interstate system -- pretty much toll free; Chrysler minivans; Honda Civics; BMW...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ... the US Constitution (the document and the ship); George Washington; Sam Adams (the beer and the founding father); Martha Washington; Ben Franklin; Thomas Jefferson; Sitting Bull; Red Cloud; McDonald's; Five Guys; Home of Economy; Wal-Mart; immunizations mandated for all; private schools; public schools; cheapest natural gas in the world; red light districts; stop lights; stop signs; Dr Seuss; Playboy (in the old days, of course); The Three Stooges; Star Wars; Hollywood; the Hawaii beaches; Gloria Steinem; Sears; Neiman Marcus; the Dallas Cowboys; Ted Turner; Barack Obama; Richard Nixon; both Roosevelts; the Kennedys, particularly Jackie ...

      Delete
    2. Maine potatoes; Idaho potatoes; Vermont skiing; Colorado skiing; South Dakota skiing; Utah skiing; shooting the rapids, Snake River, Idaho; Grand Canyon; North Dakota Badlands; deodorant use (think France); Georgia peaches (the fruit and the women -- did I say that?); California women -- even the Beach Boys knew that; Texas women; Scandinavian women; Blondie; Marilyn Monroe; tatoos; nails and spas; Herman Melville; conservation; wind power; solar power; gated communities; gay communities; Provincetown, MA; federal prisons; GITMO; medical schools; nursing; life expectancy; kindergarten; HeadStart; Peace Corps; considers Canada an ally; Delta Airlines; United Airlines; American Airlines; Denver International Airport; SUVS; In 'N Out; cheap gasoline; US Navy submarines; CIA; FBI; NSA: X-Files; Andy Warhol ...

      Delete
    3. ... Camille Paglia; Wall Street Journal; New York Times; baseball caps; San Antonion Spurs; Los Angeles Lakers; Phil Jackson; Air Jordan; Michael Jordan; faddish haircuts; Howard Hughes' #1 invention; donuts; Dunkin' Donuts; HEB; Shaw's; ExxonMobil; ChevronTexaco; ConocoPhillips; Continental Resources; Whiting; KOG; and all the Bakken-centric companies; Watford City; biggest computers in the world are in the US; only country to put a man on the moon not once, but more times than I count; aircraft carriers; FEMA; ROTC; BCPs; Boston; Celtics; Red Sox; New York City; Yankees; the US Civil Air; WWI; WWII; ice skating; roller skating; Linda Ronstadt; the Monkees; Iowa cornfields; Mississippi cotton; Taos, New Mexico, art colony; the Rocky Mountains; the Appalachian Mountains; the Great Lakes; The Great Salt Lake; Hunter S. Thompson; Ernest Hemingway; Tim O'Brien; Vietnam Veterans; John Kerry; Heinz ketchup; baseball park hotdogs; the Green Monster; art museums; water parks; orthodontists (think England); Spanish as a second language (think France -- only one state language); Corvettes ....

      Delete
    4. ... Santa Monica; "Surf City" Huntington Beach; Dallas; Minneapolis-St Paul; Miami; Portland; San Francisco; California Highway Patrol; Dragnet; Perry Mason; Baywatch; the Kardashians; Steven Spielberg; Steve Jobs; Stevie Nicks; Steve McQueen; Tom Cruise; Stevie Wonder; Bruce Springsteen; Bob Dylan; Steve Allen; Famous Dave's (hamburgers); Mad Men; blue jeans; US Army fatigues; George Patton; Ulysses S. Grant; Tiny Tim; Johnny Carson; CNN; FOX; PBS; ABC; NBC; CBS; MeTV; ESPN; NASCAR; Danica Patrick; Jeff Gordon; Massachusetts General Hospital; Cook County Hospital; Los Angeles County Hospital; smoke-free restaurants; doors that open out; transition lenses; waterless urinals; IBM; EBay; smart phones; tablets; smart boards in elementary schools; National Park System; cheapest energy in the world; called Hussein's bluff; prosthetics; the St Louis arch; Lewis & Clark; the Mississippi River; the Missouri River; the Colorado River; the Charles River; the Charleston, SC, beaches and golf courses; PGA; Tiger Woods; Micky Mantle; Roger Maris; honey production; wheat production; vanishing deductibles; vanishing panty lines; vanishing cream; Superman; Batman and Robin; the Joker; Jack Nicholson; Rocky Horror Picture Show; MBTA; $200 tennis shoes; $7 coffee; Sunday New York Times for only $7; Route 66; Route 1; Gutzon Borglum; Mount Rushmore; Crazy Horse; Korczak Ziolkowski; Syrian immigrant to Iowa, then to North Dakota; Irish immigrants to New York, to Boston; Operation Babylift, Dean Martin, Las Vegas; Perry Como, Frank Sinatra ....

      Delete
    5. ... Facebook; Twitter; YouTube; designer jeans; man-caves; Harry S Truman; plastic surgery (though Venezuela and Brazil actually beat us out on this one); ignored the Kyoto Protocol; sliding doors on both sides of the minivan; right turn on red lights; hoodies; white ear pods; no garbage strikes since privatization; frozen TV dinners; Trek bikes; Specialized Bikes; Tina Fey; 30 Rock; Macy's Day Parade; Abraham Lincoln; Robert E. Lee; Simon and Garfunkel; Barnum and Bailey; Rizzoli and Isles; Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe; Wild Bill Hickok and Annie Oakley; Roy Rogers and Dale Evans; hunting and fishing; Trigger; Lassie; Big Bird; David Lynch; Police Woman; Angie Dickinson; Paul Krugman; Danny Thomas; St Jude Medical; Red Cross; Salvation Army; Golden Parachutes; USAF Thunderbirds; Vietnam Veterans; NDIC; the Hunt brothers; the California Gold Rush; The Golden Gate Bridge; sliced bread; day-old bread; Twinkies; deep-fried Twinkies; Texas high school football; east coast lacrosse; west coast female volleyball; northern tier curling; cruise boat shuffleboard; ATT; VZ; Sprint; T-Mobile ...

      Delete
    6. ... the Sears Tower; the Empire State Building; Ellis Island; the Statue of Liberty (a gift from France); that tower in Seattle; that tower in Fargo, ND; that tower in San Antonio, TX; that tower west of Williston, ND; Walt Disney Concert Hall; Disney Land; Disney World; Walt Disney; Sam Walton; The Fugitive; The MOD Squad; Lego Land; Sea World; Six Flags; Donald Trumpe; Willie Nelson; Roy Orbison; Martin Luther King, Jr; tap water you can drink (think France); bottled water; vitamin-enriched water; water at restaurants (think France); US Army Corps of Engineers; Uglydolls; Cabbage Patch Dolls; Barbie Dolls; New York Dolls; American Girl Dolls; a magazine devoted to cigars; Cosmopolitan; Easter Bunny; Santa Claus; Rudolph; Darlene Love, Phil Spector; North Dakota Badlands; Peace Garden; Red River of the North; UND Geology; NDSU football...

      Delete