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.