Friday, April 5, 2013

Q & A With TED Book Author on The Keystone

A reader alerted me to this Q & A article regarding the Keystone.
In the TED Book Keystone XL: Down the Line, Washington Post reporter Steven Mufson and photographer Michael Williamson travel the entire length of the proposed project and reveal starting realities about its impact on everything from the environment to town economies to people’s lives, in the areas through which it passes.

As debate over the Keystone XL boils over, it felt like the right time to ask Mufson a few questions. Below, his take on this highly controversial proposed project.

Why are Canada and the United States now in a rush to expand oil exporting? 

Canada is already a major oil exporter — in fact, they’re the biggest source of U.S. crude oil imports. Companies producing oil in the tar sands in northern Alberta are looking to double production there — and they need more ways to move that oil out.

Currently, the limited options for transporting oil only pile onto the costs of production. The biggest and most natural market is the United States, both because our economy is big and because U.S. refineries on the Gulf of Mexico have been modernized and upgraded to handle low-quality crude oil like that coming out of Alberta.

Once the crude oil is refined, it’s easier to sell in the United States or abroad. The United States both exports and imports refined products, though given the size of the U.S. refinery industry and relatively flat U.S. gasoline consumption, the volume of U.S. exports of gasoline and diesel has increased.
Go to the link for the rest of the interview.

These were my thoughts:
That was actually quite a nice interview. I read it quickly so I may have missed a few points, but I did not consider the author particularly biased. If anything, he seemed to be ambivalent -- maybe caught up in anti-Keystone bias, but after traveling the length of it (and noting all the pipeline that already crosses the US) he felt it might not be that big a deal.

I think "we" are simply at that point in the US that 80% of the population has no informed opinion on the project (as long as they can afford gasoline they are happy regardless where it comes from and how it gets there). 10% are adamantly opposed -- some sincere, some fringe -- and the other 10% are only reacting to the 10% that are opposed. 

Eight (8) New Permits -- Williston Basin; Four Huge Wells (Need To Confirm IP Of One Well);

First the huge new wells; these are the producing wells that were completed:
  • 22808, 4,439, BEXP, Cheryl 17-20 4H, Banks, t2/13; cum 36K 2/13;
  • 22632, 2,400, BEXP, Marcia 3-10 4TFH, Last Chance, t2/13; cum 13K 2/13;
  • 22631, 3,201, BEXP, Marcia 3-10 3H, Last Chance, t2/13; cum 19K 2/13;
  • 23715, 273, XTO, ND State 43X-16B, Stoneview, Siverston, t2/13; cum 2K 2/13;
  • 23660, 2,699, XTO, Lee 44-31NEH, Stoneview, Siverston, t2/13; cum 500 bbls 2/13; need to check IP on this well; unfortunately I don't see the sundry report at the NDIC website yet, to see what the company reported; one almost thinks the correct IP is 269, so we will have to wait to see
**************************************

22808, see above, BEXP, Cheryl 17-20 4H, Banks, t2/13; cum 36K 2/13:

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN2-20132635709340602674669146069146


22632, see above, BEXP, Marcia 3-10 4TFH, Last Chance, t2/13; cum 13K 2/13:

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN2-20131812974116102024413692298010712

 22631, see above, BEXP, Marcia 3-10 3H, Last Chance, t2/13; cum 19K 2/13:

PoolDateDaysBBLS OilRunsBBLS WaterMCF ProdMCF SoldVent/Flare
BAKKEN2-201323188411799326667000

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Active rigs: 187 (nice)

Eight (8) new permits -- 
  • Operators: Whiting (5), Hess (2), Zenergy,
  • Fields: Sanish (Mountrail), Cherry Creek (McKenzie), Foreman Butte (McKenzie), Pleasant hill (McKenzie)
  • Comments:
Wells coming off the confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

The Sierra Club Needs To Send a Thank-You Note To The Fracking Industry

For those who care, Oil & Gas Journal is reporting:
US energy-related carbon dioxide emissions reached 5.3 billion tonnes in 2012—the nation’s lowest level since 1994, the US Energy Information Administration reported. Emissions have declined consecutively since 2007, with the exception of 2010.
The drop in CO2 emissions in 2012 was primarily attributable to the shift of electric power generation to natural gas from coal. During 2012, particularly in the spring and early summer, low natural gas prices led to competition between gas-fired and coal-fired electric power generators.
I wonder if the Sierra Club will send a thank-you note to the fracking industry?

Memo To Commercial Airline Travelers --

It looks like if you plan to fly commercially next week, it may be best to do it by Tuesday, April 9, 2013 --- it looks like the Brits suggest Wednesday, April 10, 2013, could be a day of fireworks.

I don't know much about nuclear EMP, but I know enough that flying and nuclear EMP are not a good combination. 

North Korea recommending foreigners leave by April 10 -- the government can't guarantee their safety after April 10th.

The first thing one needs to do is start looking for historical events to determine why April 10 might be important. Unfortunately, wiki is geared for Western readers, and not much of interest to the Orient mind regarding this date.

However, this is noteworthy:
Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current North Korean leader, born 15 April 1912, died 8 July 1994, was the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as North Korea, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. 
April 15: a nice birthday present in honor of his grandfather who was the "father of his country," much like George Washington was the father of our country. So, the warning that the country cannot guarantee anyone's safety after April 10 certainly fits.

Memo to self: update Google calendar.

Wow, This Must Really Hurt ..

John Kerry, following his boss's lead, will forgo part of salary to show solidarity for the federally furloughed and sequestered worker.

Remember this is the guy that docked his yacht out of state, Rhode Island, I believe, to avoid Massachusetts sales tax. Having just made a bundle on selling his Heinz stock to Warren Buffett, I doubt he will notice the loss in salary, though he will gain bragging rights with the boss. It will be interesting to see if all cabinet members give up a bit of their pay. I assume more are yet to come on board, although quite a few already have. In fact, it looks like John Kerry was probably embarrassed to show up at Cabinet meetings when talk of the sequester came up. Smile. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Cabinet.

Maybe that would be a good poll: to ask if mineral owners in the Bakken feel compelled to give up 5% of their windfall to show solidarity with the president. As my daughter would text: LOL.

A Reminder: If You Own Minerals, You Need To Read This Thread ...

... over at the Bakken Shale Discussion Group. Bob Finley is most recent to contribute and he offers great information.

This thread is permanently linked over at my "Data Links" page, as well as the good discussion regarding overlapping 2560-acre spacing.

Ten European Refineries Will Go Idle

Bloomberg is reporting:
Oil refiners in Europe will shut 10 percent of their plants this decade as fuel demand falls to a 19-year low.
Of the region’s 104 facilities, 10 will shut permanently by 2020 from France to Italy to the Czech Republic, a Bloomberg survey of six European refinery executives showed. Oil consumption is headed for a fifth year of declines to the lowest level since 1994, the International Energy Agency estimates. Two-thirds of European refineries lost money in 2011, ....
A 50 percent jump in three years in U.S. diesel exports coupled with waning demand for imports of European fuels, as well as two recessions in five years in the euro region, have curbed profit from oil products at companies from Italy’s Eni SpA to Royal Dutch Shell Plc.Refining margins dropped to $7 this month, from a peak of about $20 a barrel in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The losses are being compounded by the configuration of Europe’s refineries. Most of the plants, more than 50 percent of which were constructed in the wake of World War II, are geared toward gasoline production, though diesel now accounts for 75 percent of the region’s motor fuel needs. 
Times are a'changing. Did you notice that comment about US diesel exports?

Bottom line: seems like a huge headline, but shutting down 10 old refineries out of a total of 104 facilities between now and 2020 seems hardly noteworthy. Losing money, however, is something else.

Small Company Ready To Drill Into The Illinois Basin, Illinois -- April 5, 2013

Updates
 
July 7, 2019: Illinois Basin, update, where one can drill a well for $75,000. And fracking not required.

Original Post 

A reader alerted me to a small oil company about to drill its first well in the Illinois Basin, Illinois, as reported by Rigzone:
Strata‐X Energy Ltd. provided an update on the Company's Vail Oil Project in the Illinois Basin, Illinois (USA) where Strata‐X currently has a 100 percent interest in 46,300 net acres. The Vail Oil Project is a high potential oil appraisal and development project with the first appraisal well due to commence in the second quarter of 2013.
Data points:
  • vertical depth: 4,500 feet
  • horizontal leg (short): 4,300 feet
  • total depth: 9,300 feet
From the press release:
The Company's working interests are situated within an area interpreted as an unconventional continuous oil field in the Illinois Basin. Strata‐X plans to continue leasing additional prospective lands prior to and during the Vail Oil Project appraisal drilling program. Given the competitive leasing environment in the area, the Company will not release the location of its first horizontal well until after the permit to drill has been issued by the proper regulatory agencies.
From another Strata-X press release, March 17, 2013:
Strata‐X recognizes direct analogies between the Elm Coulee Oil Field, located in the Williston Basin, and the Vail Oil Project. According to the Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation website, Elm Coulee has produced over 138 million barrels of oil equivalent to date from a continuous, unconventional oil field from the Bakken dolomitic reservoir and is expected to ultimately produce over 200 million barrels of oil (Sonnenberg and Pramudito, 2009). The dolomitic reservoirs in both Vail and Elm Coulee are of the same geological age, have similar thickness and are immediately below highly generative source rocks.
Elm Coulee has about 5 million barrels of oil in place per section (Walker, et al., 2006), which compares favorably to Vail''s interpreted 3 million barrels of oil in place per section at shallower depths. Strata‐X interprets that the target 50,000 net acres at the Vail Oil Project contain over 230 million (undiscovered) barrels original oil in place. (see Cautionary Statement below).
Oil was intersected in many historic wells at Elm Coulee but, like Vail, oil flows and recoveries were sub‐commercial in the early vertical wells. More recent horizontal hydraulic fracturing treatments at Elm Coulee have resulted in commercial oil flows with July 2012 production from the field in excess of 33,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation website, accessed 9/19/12).
Back of envelope calculations:
Currently, if operators are recovering about 4% from OOIP in the Bakken, North Dakota side of the state line; if they are putting in two wells/section with EURs of 400,000 each:  at 4% recovery and 800,000 bbls EUR / section / primary recovery, that works out to 20 million bbls/section/OOIP vs the press release number of Elm Coulee's 5 million barrels of OOIP.
For newbies:
  • 4% is on the low side. Operators think they are recovering as much as 8% from the Bakken, on the North Dakota side of the state line
  • two wells per section is very much on the low side; the best Bakken is nearing six wells per section; most Bakken at four wells per section; and all Bakken a minimum of two wells per section
  • EURs of 400,000 is very conservative; the best Bakken is now being estimated at 1 million bbls EUR. the lower end EUR is about 300,000 bbls EUR but I don't see the 300,000 bbl-EUR bandied about much
If one moves the needle to 6%, 600,000-bbl EURs, and four wells per section, one gets in the neighborhood of 40 million bbls/section/OOIP in the Bakken on the North Dakota side of the border.
But don't take my word for it. This is from Legacy Oil talking about the Spearfish:
"In terms of resource potential, the regional extent of the Spearfish is still being delineated, however, in areas already shown to be prospective, reservoir parameters can suggest potential OOIP to be in the realm of 9.0 to 15.0 million barrels per section, which could represent 2-3 times what the southeastern Saskatchewan Bakken offers on average."
That's the Spearfish, and the Bakken is known to be a whole lot better.

From another post, but this time from the Bakken on the North Dakota side of the border:
Is there 4.4 million barrels of recoverable oil in each section? It appears to be the industry consensus that using current technology only 1 - 3% of total Bakken oil is recoverable; there are suggestions that EOG is extracting 6 - 9% of the recoverable oil. Let's say, EOG is recovering an unheard-of 10% of the total oil. Remember, EOG opines EUR of 700,000 barrels per well. Currently, EOG generally drills one well in each section in the Parshall. 700,000 is 10% of 7 million barrels. [And, if EOG is only extracting 3% of the total oil reserves, then there would be 23 million barrels oil where EOG drills a well.]
You can do the math, substituting your own numbers, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8% primary recovery and divide it into 4 million bbls/recoverable oil/section from the best Bakken to get an idea of OOIP.

Enough of this. Time to move on.

Disclaimer: I am well known to make simple arithmetic errors. The above was done on the run with intermittent wi-fi connectivity. The post could be updated later to correct typographical or arithmetic errors. 

Black Friday -- Links; Too Big To Fail -- The Teamsters Pension

Jobs report: horrendous. Market plummets. So much for all that talk about ending quantitative easing. Barry to Ben: do more!

RBN Energy: crude loves rock'n'roll -- east coast delivery terminals.
Last June (2012) the largest refinery on the East Coast was on the brink of closing - in part due to higher international crude prices (versus US inland grades).
Since then the 330 Mb/d Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery has reopened and along with several of its competitors the new owners have developed means to get access to lower priced crude from North Dakota and Western Canada using rail
Today’s episode of our continuing crude by rail series is a survey of East Coast rail offloading facilities. The first episode in this series provides an introduction and overview of the “Year of the Tank Car." 
We describe the rapid growth in US crude oil production that put pressure on pipeline logistics and made rail a viable alternative for moving crude to market. 
The second installment began our survey of rail loading terminals with a map and a complete list of facilities in North Dakota. The follow up episodes covered EOG, Hess and Inergy, Plains, Enbridge and Global, Bakken Oil Express, Dakota Plains, BakkenLink and Savage and Bakken terminals north of the Canadian border in A Plethora of Terminals in the Williston Basin. 
We discussed the development of rail terminals loading heavy oil sands bitumen crude in Western Canada in two episodes. 
The last episode on rail loading covered terminals built outside the Bakken and Canada in the Niobrara, Eagle Ford, Permian and Anadarko basins as well as Cushing, OK. 
The complete series can be found at the www.rbnenergy.com website under the Daily Energy Post tab. In this episode we begin our survey of destination terminals with a look at installations built to receive crude at or provide terminal distribution to refineries on the US East Coast.
This is an incredible series. Folks need to bookmark it for future reference.

WSJ Links

Section M (Mansion): I don't read.

Section D (Arena): if a tribute to Roger Ebert was there, I missed it. If not there, sad. Lowers my opinion of the Arena editor. Just a slight tad. My bad: it's in the front section. Sorry. My opinion of the WSJ just went up. A lot.

Section C ( Money & Investing):
Fears on teamsters pensions:  
Some companies are pushing to withdraw their workers from a giant Teamsters pension plan that faces a deep funding shortfall and questions about its long-term viability.
Investment losses during the financial crisis and hard times for trucking companies that pay into the Teamsters' Central States Funds have sapped the fund of money it uses to pay promised benefits.
With just 60 cents of assets for every $1 in obligations, the Teamsters pension fund is considered in "critical" status by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal agency that backstops failed pensions.
Congress spends its time on the banks, and conveniently avoids looking into the Teamsters.
Section B (Marketplace):
Section A:
Oil-boom byproduct: unaffordable housing. It is a a problem. Even folks with moderate oil royalty income from the Bakken are getting checks exceeding $30,000/month, and as we move to increased-density drilling these checks will get bigger. Oil patch workers are easily making $100,000/years.
In the 12-county Bakken region—which comprises nine counties in North Dakota and three in Montana—the working population has swollen to 85,000 as of December from 50,000 three years earlier. Most of them are oil-field workers chasing high-paying new jobs, according to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.
Along with them, listing prices for the few available homes in the region have gone up too, rising by nearly 27% in the past year to an average of $253,000, according to Realtor.com. Some rentals have gone up even more: A one-bedroom apartment in Williston, N.D., that rented for several hundred dollars a month before the boom now goes for $2,000.
That has left some residents—whose incomes only recently were adequate for their homes—feeling sidelined. Police dispatchers, teachers, municipal workers—and others in traditionally moderate-income jobs earn too little to keep up when it comes to paying for homes and apartments.
As a result, North Dakota towns such as Tioga and Watford City are grappling with challenges commonly faced by economically vibrant areas like San Francisco and New York in determining how to create affordable "workforce housing" for service-sector employees. The city of Williston paid $1.5 million in 2011 for a stake in an apartment complex in town, allowing it to control 77 units there and rent them cheaply to its employees. But it isn't enough. 
The timing of this article could not have been more ... well, timely. My current poll is on this exact issue.

By the way, a poll a couple years ago suggested that upwards of half the respondents felt the housing situation would be resolved within a year. Also, compare this story with The Atlantic Monthly's story that the Bakken boom is over. Folks looking for a home in the oil patch probably wish the boom was over.
  • North Korea: too dangerous to fail. Stories everywhere; no links provided. 
  • Op-ed: Obama's gun-control misfire. The president figured Republicans who opposed his agenda would feel the heat. Instead it is Democrats, mostly in the Senate, who are sweating bullets. -- Strassel.
  • Op-ed: call them tiger students. And get to work. One reason why Asians dominate New York's top public high schools: high parental expectations. -- Kozak.
  • Bookshelf: a troubadour on the moors. A poet treks across northern Britain, giving nightly readings to skeptical villagers. Ben Downing reviews Simon Armitage's Walking Home.

March Jobs Numbers: Horrendous. Labor Pool Is Lowest Since 1979 When Jimmy Carter Was President; The President's Response -- Raise Taxes; Memo to Chris -- Wake Up! Post-Mortems: No Mention Of The 800-Pound Gorilla -- ObamaCare

Updates

April 8, 2013: Hey, wake up! It's Monday morning. The post mortems are coming in -- the jobs report on Friday. Monday morning quarterbacking. It's easy now to write the stories. Here's the first out of the starting blocks from CNBC:
Weak U.S. jobs data on Friday confirmed the worst trading week this year for European and U.S. stocks and now analysts are warning there will be little upturn in the data and investors should brace themselves for further trouble ahead as fiscal tightening begins to take its toll.
Friday's jobs report came in well below expectations, raising concerns that the recovery in the world's largest economy is weakening. March's participation rate was at its lowest since 1979, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Just 88,000 jobs were added to the economy last month although the unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent in February.
"In the labor market, at least, we see a real risk of even worse news down the line," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomic Advisors said in a research note on Monday.
Weakening labor demand is the key problem with the U.S. economy, according to Shepherdson, not rising layoffs. And this weakening demand is mostly from small firms, that are below the radar of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey which shows national factory activity.
Original Post

Of all the data coming out today, the data with the worst implications and long-lasting effects:
Record 89,967,000 not in labor force; another 663,000 drop out in March 
*************************

Wells coming off confidential list have been posted. OXY USA abandons a wildcat Three Forks well; most of the reports mediocre to not good. 

**************************

All we need from the President is a "Jimmy Carter malaise speech." In 1979, it was the Iranian hostage situation; today, it's the Korean Missile Crisis.

**************************
Remember: the magic number is 200,000.
"We" need 200,000 for growth.
At one time "they" tried moving the goal posts to 120,000.
Today's numbers won't hit 200K; won't hit 120K; won't hit 100K; less than 90K!
This president is one of three most inept presidents ever.
His answer: raise taxes.
Labor force lowest since President Carter in office.
Cue up Connie Francis.

The jobs numbers.

Unemployment rate drops from the highly disbelieved 7.7% to the more disbelieveable 7.6%

If folks remember, it was only yesterday that economists were officially predicting 200,000 new jobs, but the whisper number was 150,000.

Drudge is first to headline the number: 88,000 jobs. Horrendous (the jobs number, not Drudge).

Labor force is at 63%. Lowest since 1979.

And Drudge's main headline: Obama's answer -- raise taxes again.

Let's see how Reuters spins the jobs report:

This was the Reuters report just before the numbers were released:
Analysts expect 200,000 jobs to have been added in March, down from 236,000 added in February. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 7.7 percent.
The S&P is down 0.6 percent so far this week, on track to be its worst week of 2013.
Earlier this week, private sector employment and jobless claims data indicated weakness in the labor market. Reports on the manufacturing and services sectors also disappointed.
"The tone in markets could change if we get a positive surprise, but the data we've seen leading up to this has people expecting fewer job gains than we've been seeing," said Chris Bertelsen.
Memo to Chris: wake up.

Now the report after the numbers have come out. AP first to report: not to worry. The AP says the report just reminds us that the "job market's path back to full health will be uneven."

"Uneven"?

It's been flat or worse for four years. Now, a drop that surprised. Really surprised. Analysts publicly forecast 200,000 but they were afraid they might lose their credibility if they said what they really thought (150,000) and turned out to be wrong. But their worst predictions weren't even close. It would have been a shock at 150,000. A bigger shock at 100,000. I don't even know what word to use when we see 88,000 jobs added.  That's probably what the Bakken has added in the past couple of years on its own. All private.

Wow, talk about a short, short AP report; this is about all it said:
The weakness in March may signal that some companies were worried last month about steep government spending cuts that began on March 1.

March's job gains were half the pace of the previous six months, when the economy added an average of 196,000 jobs a month. The drop raises fears that the economy could slow after a showing signs of strengthening over the winter.
Can't wait to see the Reuters more-expanded report. 

I have to chuckle. Folks complain about Drudge, but he gets the breaking news out there faster than anyone. Sure, he links others, but he does it better than anyone else. [Seriously, if you want to see breaking news, do you go to New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, CNN, Fox News, or Drudge Report. If you don't go to Drudge Report first you are already behind before you start. Remember, Drudge does not write the news; he simply links you to news at all those sites and thousands more.]

Still waiting for Reuters. Reuters not there yet. Here's a better one:

From Zerohedge, one of the better sites for economic activity analysis:
So much for "open-ended QE driven recovery". Moments ago the March Non-farm payroll hit and it was a doozy, printing at 88K, below the lowest forecast of 100K, well below the expected number of 190K, and a tragedy compared to the February revised print of 268K (was 236K). This was the biggest miss to expectations since December 2009 and the worst print since June 2012. The unemployment rate declined to 7.6%, but this was due entirely to the collapse in the labor force participation rate, which declined by 20 bps to 63.3%, a new 30 year low.
CNBC:
Job creation slowed to a crawl during March, with the U.S. economy creating just 88,0000 positions though the unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent.
The number was a sharp slide from February's upwardly revised 268,000.
The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payroll growth eased amid hopes that the economy had begun to achieve the escape velocity needed for sustained growth. 
I'm somewhat disillusioned with a premier business outlet suggesting that a drop in the unemployment sign was a good sign. Hello. It means folks are dropping out of the job market. They do better on disability and unemployment. Though unemployment benefits are running out for many, the number on disability are increasing. Folks have broken the code on how to get on disability. (I talked about this a long, long time ago; I can offer advice how military personnel can position themselves for disability after they retire. All legit.)

Still can't find the Reuters story. That boiler-plate is always most fun to read. Ah, here it is; shortest I've ever seen. Two paragraphs and the first paragraph mentions it in broadest terms, throwing away the boiler plate today:
Stock index futures sharply extended losses on Friday after data showed American employers hired at the slowest pace in nine months in March, a sign that Washington's austerity drive could be stealing momentum from the economy.
So, that's it. The President's answer to horrendous jobs number -- more taxes. Employers are not going to hire workers when the US is faced with a) the sequester now; b) ObamaCare coming; c) a president that continues to slow-roll US industry (think oil and gas); and, d) now a call for more taxes from that same president.

One of three most inept presidents in US history. Well, since 1929.

Actually, come to think of it: a "Jimmy Carter malaise" speech would be more reassuring than a "more taxes are needed" speech.

Edward P Lazear wrote this opinion for the WSJ which appeared today, before the horrendous jobs report. It would be interesting to hear Lazear defend his position now. The headline: beware the monthly jobs-report chatter. The initial reports are often inaccurate and don't say anything useful about where the economy is headed.
For example, during the past year, 164,000 jobs were added each month on average. But consider that the typical error range would put job growth during that period somewhere between 96,000 and 232,000 in the average month.
Trying to deduce anything about the direction of the jobs market by referring to such wobbly numbers is essentially guesswork. Indeed, in any given month, about 70% of what happens to job growth in the following year has nothing to do with changes that occurred in that particular month. In almost one-fourth of cases, the job growth in any given month does not even move in the same direction as the job change in the 12 months that follow. Using even the entire previous quarter's job growth provides no better signal of where the labor market is headed.
Lazear was the chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, from 2006 - 2009. I never would have guessed. I had him pegged for an Obama apologist. So, I guess there is nothing to be concerned about.
*********************

The following is for archival purposes, not part of today's post on the jobs report.

From wiki, Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech:
When the energy crisis set in, Carter was planning on delivering his fifth major speech on energy; however, he felt that the American people were no longer listening. Carter left for the presidential retreat of Camp David. 
"For more than a week, a veil of secrecy enveloped the proceedings. Dozens of prominent Democratic Party leaders—members of Congress, governors, labor leaders, academics and clergy—were summoned to the mountaintop retreat to confer with the beleaguered president." 
His pollster, Pat Caddell, told him that the American people simply faced a crisis of confidence because of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.; the Vietnam War; and Watergate. 
On July 15, 1979, Carter gave a nationally-televised address in which he identified what he believed to be a "crisis of confidence" among the American people. This came to be known as his "malaise" speech, although Carter himself never uses the word in the speech.