Week 25: June 16, 2013 -- June 22, 2013

The Bakken
Bakken boom cutting west coast imports of crude; staggering statistics
The USA is back -- thanks to the Bakken, Carpe Diem
Record production despite adverse weather conditions

Bakken operations
EOG drills well in western North Dakota with payback in six months
Two spectacular EOG Hawkeye wells
Two interesting KOG re-entry wells

Deals
Abraxas sells non-operated Bakken acreage

Fracking
EPA says final report on fracking won't be ready until 2016 -- biggest story of the week
A major fracking project in the Bakken?
EPA closes the books on Wyoming shenanigans; turns investigation over to Wyoming

Other formations
Excellent article on the Montana Heath/Tyler

Energy Export Updated To BP 2013 Data -- The Oil Drum -- Great Britain: Energy Poverty

Link here.

North America

North American oil production (including natural gas liquids) is up while consumption is steady, leading to reduced imports from overseas. Individual components include

• Increased production of Canadian tar sands.
• Increased production of US tight oil and gas.
• Minimal declines in Mexican oil fields.
• Reduced consumption in the US.

Great Britain

Excluding alternative fuels, the United Kingdom now produces only 40% of the energy it did in 2000. This is energy poverty on a national scale!

Brazil

Despite the hoopla a few years ago about Brazil’s offshore, sub-salt discoveries, Brazil looks unlikely to become an oil exporter any time soon. (See my comments June 19, 2013.)

Unemployment, State-By-State, Interactive -- WSJ -- Lotsa Fun

Link here.

In May, Nebraska and the Dakotas had the lowest unemployment rates, which were all at or below 4%. Nevada, Illinois and Mississippi had the highest rates, all above 9%. Seventeen states saw their jobless rates rise in May from the prior month while eight states and the nation’s capital showed no change, the report showed.

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The boxer:

The Boxer, Emmylou Harris

Daily Oil Production, North Dakota, January, 2012 - December 2013 -- Just For The Fun Of It

Updates

July 23, 2014: see also this post and the comment it generated. 

November 21, 2013: based on Platts story today that North Dakota produced 945,000 bopd in October, it is unlikely that North Dakota will hit the one-million-bopd milestone by the end of the year, but it will be close: the weather will have to cooperate, and prices will have to cooperate to encourage operators not to choke back. 

November 16, 2013: wow -- huge story in The Wall Street Journal. According to the EIA, "oil companies in the Bakken will reach the million-barrel milestone in December, 2013." A long article. Fun to read. Another U.S. oil field, the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, hit the million-barrels-a-day milestone in May of this year, according to the EIA data. The Permian Basin — the massive field in Texas that’s been the foundation for U.S. oil production for decades – got there in May 2011.

October 15, 2013: updated, most recent data -- August, 2013.

September 13, 2013: updated, most recent data -- July, 2013.

July 15, 2013: updated, following May's numbers.

July 9, 2013: according to this site, North Dakota officials predict daily production to reach 850,000 bopd by the end of 2013.  I think the state will hit 850,000 bopd by the end of August (remember: reporting lags two months, so we won't see that figure reported until Halloween).

July 7, 2013: Genscape is reporting (this was reported back on June 13, 2013):

Genscape is predicting crude production in the Bakken will continue its growth trend with 127 Mb/d added between April and the end of the year. By year end 2014, Genscape is predicting production will reach 1.1 MMb/d.

Genscape has expanded its network of proprietary real-time energy monitors to track Bakken production/transportation from 12 rail terminals and two pipelines. In April, 84% of crude produced in the Bakken was transported by rail, while the other 16% was transported by pipe. Rail remained a viable source of transportation in April as the spread between the coastal markets and the Bakken remained wide, averaging $17/bbl. However, this spread has come in significantly since then and volumes are now trending more towards pipeline. Nearly 30% of crude in May was transported by pipeline.

June 23, 2013: some other recent stories on Bakken production

• NDIC expects surge in crude oil production this summer ; Lynn Helms, Director, NDIC, as quoted in The Dickinson Press, April 17, 2013
• Bakken could produce 2 million bopd by 2025 -- slide 15 of a recent MDU presentation

June 23, 2013:  after reading the original post below, go back and read this note posted back in September 14, 2010, in which it was widely predicted that North Dakota would be producing one (1) million bbls of oil per day by .... drum roll ... 2020.

Through the end of this year, if oil production in North Dakota was to increase by just 1% each month, North Dakota would be producing 860,000 bopd. At that rate, just 1% increase each month, North Dakota would pass 1 million bopd by May, 2015.

In the past twelve months (April, 2012, through April, 2013, production has fallen below a 1% increase on only three occasions: 0.52% in March, 2013; and a decrease month-over-month on two occasions due to severe weather. May, 2013, had some severe weather so it's likely that production will decrease again month-over-month when results are posted next month.

At just 2% increase each month, North Dakota would pass 1 million bopd by April of next year (2014).

With takeaway capacity well in excess of 1.3 million bopd, the only thing holding back that 1-million-bopd threshold: natural gas processing. Operators are choking back oil production due to excess flaring due to inadequate natural gas processing.

Update

The original post was to project when/if the one-million-bopd would be reached in calendar year 2013. It was not; we came close, but the severe weather in December most likely prevented that milestone from being reached. The milestone will be reached in early 2014. This page will not be further updated. It served its purpose.

Original Post

Three different scenarios (data is updated when new numbers come out).

Four columns in each scenario.

• First column: month/year
• Second column: barrels oil per day (from NDIC website)
• Third column: increase or decrease from previous month
• Fourth column: A (actual) or E (estimate)

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

The first scenario: the estimate is based on previous year's increase/decrease.

Month      bopd     %  chg act/est Jan-12 547326      2.29% A Feb-12 559370 2.20% A Mar-12 580415 3.76% A Apr-12 611329 5.33% A May-12 644345 5.40% A Jun-12 664475 3.12% A Jul-12 676729 1.84% A Aug-12 704478 4.10% A Sep-12 729477 3.55% A Oct-12 749097 2.69% A Nov-12 735276 -1.85% A Dec-12 768977 4.58% A Jan-13 738041 -4.02% A Feb-13 779149 5.57% A Mar-13 783184 0.52% A Apr-13 793852 1.29% A May-13 810129 2.05% A Jun-13 821598 1.42% A Jul-13 875736 6.59% A Aug-13 911242 4.05% A Sep-13 931940 2.28% A Oct-13 945182 1.42% A Nov-13 976453 3.31% A Dec-13 923227 -4.45% A ******************************************************************* If one wants to use a straight 1% for the rest of the year (month-over-month): Month bopd   % chge act/est Jan-12 547326 Feb-12 559370 2.20% A Mar-12 580415 3.76% A Apr-12 611329 5.33% A May-12 644345 5.40% A Jun-12 664475 3.12% A Jul-12 676729 1.84% A Aug-12 704478 4.10% A Sep-12 729477 3.55% A Oct-12 749097 2.69% A Nov-12 735276 -1.85% A Dec-12 768977 4.58% A Jan-13 738041 -4.02% A Feb-13 779149 5.57% A Mar-13 783184 0.52% A Apr-13 793302 1.29% A May-13 811262 2.26% A Jun-13 821598 1.25% A Jul-13 875736   6.59% A Aug-13 911242 4.05% A Sep-13 931940 2.28% A Oct-13 945182 1.42% A Nov-13 976453 3.31% A Dec-13 923227 -5.45% A *****************************************************   If one wants to use 2% increase, month-over-month: Month        bopd     % chg act/est Jan-12 547326 Feb-12 559370 2.20% A Mar-12 580415 3.76% A Apr-12 611329 5.33% A May-12 644345 5.40% A Jun-12 664475 3.12% A Jul-12 676729 1.84% A Aug-12 704478 4.10% A Sep-12 729477 3.55% A Oct-12 749097 2.69% A Nov-12 735276 -1.85% A Dec-12 768977 4.58% A Jan-13 738041 -4.02% A Feb-13 779149 5.57% A Mar-13 783184 0.52% A Apr-13 793302 1.29% A May-13 811262 2.26% A Jun-13 821598 1.25% A Jul-13 875736 6.59% A Aug-13 911242 4.05% A Sep-13 932962 2.28% A Oct-13 945182 1.30% A Nov-13 976453 3.31% A Dec-13 923227 -5.45% A

More On That Bloomberg Story: Global Partners LP

Another part of the story in the Bloomberg article just linked a few minutes ago.

From that article:

A complex along the Columbia River in Oregon, owned by Waltham, Massachusetts-based Global Partners LP, began in November off-loading trains of oil to send it by water to markets along the Pacific Ocean. 

Do a search of the MDW regarding Global Partners and this is just some of what you will find:

• an Oregon story: Vita est dulcis;
• same company shipping direct to East Coast refineries;
• why CLR surged back in January, 2013; 
• shipping oil to California by marine vessel, and not pipelines or rail; 
• investing-in-pipelines archives.

For The Archives: Bloomberg And The Bakken Boom; California Imported Eight (8) Times As Much Bakken Crude In February As It Did One Year Ago; Bakken Oil Arriving By Marine Vessel For The First Time In History

This is the headline at Bloomberg today:

Bakken Boom Cutting West Coast Imports Of Crude: Energy Markets

Note: it doesn't say the oil shale revolution or the central corridor or Texas or whatever .... the headline shouts "The Bakken."

I wonder if Snopes will ever update their page on the Bakken or whether Jane Nielsen will update her blog, the one in which she said about the Bakken: don't believe the hype. Sure, there's some oil there, but not much.

So, back to the Bloomberg article:

The West Coast is bringing in record amounts of crude from the interior of the U.S., cutting the price of foreign supplies and heralding the end of some overseas imports by next year.

California, the world’s ninth-largest economy, shipped via rail more oil than ever in February from North Dakota’s Bakken formation, while Russian imports to the region slid to 713,000 barrels from a June 2012 record of 6.53 million. The premium for Russia’s East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil has retreated 60 percent against U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate since Feb. 20. 

The drop in foreign purchases underscores the U.S.’s shifting needs as soaring output in states such as North Dakota and Texas put the country on course for energy self-sufficiency for the first time since Harry Truman was president in 1952. The West coast, home to 17 percent of the nation’s refining capacity, may be able to dispense with overseas light, sweet oil even as output from Alaska’s North Slope and California wanes.  

The article is simply staggering with its statistics:

California, PADD 5’s largest refiner, received an unprecedented 206,172 barrels of Bakken crude by rail in February, eight times the volume from a year ago. The state took in 94,695 barrels of Bakken crude in March, up from 70,706 a year earlier, according to the latest data available from the California Energy Commission.

Last year, Bakken oil began arriving in California on marine vessels for the first time, totaling 89,462 barrels, according to the commission’s data.

Nine (9) New Permits -- The Williston Basin, North Dakota, USA

Active rigs: 189 (steady)

Nine (9) new permits --

• Operators: Whiting (2), Slawson (2), Emerald (2), Oasis, True, MRO
• Fields: Park (Billings), Reunion Bay (Mountrail), Van Hook (Mountrail), Boxcar Butte (McKenzie), Camp (McKenzie), Bowline (True), Sanish (Mountrail)
• Comments: True is certainly active in Bowlin

Wells coming off the confidential list were posted earlier; see sidebar at the right.

One producing well completed:

• 24958, no data, Petro Harvester, Swenson 4H, Columbus, NDIC still shows it as "confidential"

For The Archives: The USA Is Back -- Thanks To The Bakken

Link here to CarpeDiem. 

Here's a little bit from that link, but you have got to go to the link to get the full story. It is simply quite staggering:

It’s the best-kept secret in the economics media: The United States is on the brink of a period of solid, long-term growth rivaling that of the 1950s and 1960s. It is not a finance-driven, self-destructive boom, like the 2000s’ housing bubble. No, the new economy will be durably grounded in energy and heavy manufacturing, even though it will take several years to come to full fruition.

Why haven’t you heard about the boom? Official economic forecasters, like the International Monetary Fund and the Congressional Budget Office, simply have not factored America’s emerging new economy into their forecasts. Instead, they still see us limping along at an average of 2 to 2.5 percent real (after inflation) growth to the farthest horizon — a hobbled, aging power, borne down by debts and deficits, shorn of its old bounce-back vigor, tottering along just fast enough to stave off out-and-out stagnation.

This is not an investment site, but my hunch is that young people with $500/month to invest (and follow through with that habit) will have quite a portfolio in 30 years. There are at least four things that young investors have today that older investors did not have 30 and 40 years ago:

a) information: I had day-old information from the WSJ when I first started investing 40 years ago; and that was it; pretty much hi, lo, p/e, and div;

b) discount brokers and immediate trades: until Schwab came along, we only had full service brokers with huge fees and a fast trade took a 10-minute phone call (while the broker tried to churn one's portfolio);

c) tax-deferred investment accounts: IRAs came first; then Roth IRAs; then 401(c)'s and (k)'s or whatever they are now; the federal government has an incredible Thrift Savings Program that is unmatched anywhere for the "little investor"; and,

d) many young investors today are going to inherit a fair amount of money from their parents, Baby Boomers; and, from their grandparents, members of the greatest generation. To the best of my knowledge, Baby Boomers represent the first American generation that were able to save more than they spent.

One can add any number of other advantages, I'm sure, and the ones listed above won't hold true for every young investor, but one gets the point. I'm sure Warren Buffett, John Neff, and John Bogle would all agree.

For The Archives: Must Be A Slow News Day

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting.

I think the most remarkable thing is that outside of a few counties in western North Dakota, there is little evidence of a boom. If visitors get no farther west than Bismarck, they will hardly be aware there is an oil boom in North Dakota. I am sure that this is fairly true in the Minot area also. There is increased economic activity in Minot, but I doubt most visitors see it as busy as they thought it would be based on all the articles about the Bakken boom.

With regard to the linked article, thank goodness The Atlantic (Monthly) has already called the Bakken boom over.

On the other hand, my hunch is that things could end badly in the four counties most affected by the oil boom. The ranchers and farmers can take only so much. I am impressed they have coped (apparently) as well as they have. If The Bismarck Tribune notes these problems when the oil patch is not even averaging two wells/spacing unit across the Williston Basin, imagine the challenges when we get to two wells/spacing unit; then four, then eight. And as noted, some areas will have forty or more wells/spacing unit. There are enough locations to support active drilling through 2030, and that's just the Bakken/Three Forks. Then there's the Tyler, Spearfish, Madison, and Red River. And EOR.

My hunch is that sooner than later there will be a moratorium on new pads and operators will be required to drill the heck out of existing pads before building new ones.  To some extent, free market capitalism is already pointing in that direction.

Nationwide The Number Of Rigs Dropped This Past Week; In The Bakken, Rigs Are Steady; Up Two (2) Today

Active rigs: 189

The trend in the Bakken has been up this past week.

The post-boom high was 194 (the all-time high was 218), May 13, 2013, not all that long ago.

Active rigs are tracked here.

EOG Drills Well In Western North Dakota With Payback In Six Months -- Mike Filloon

Reported at SeekingAlpha.

This is an incredible story. I reported the phenomenon at least two years ago.

Mike:

Back in November of last year, I began covering a change EOG Resources had made with respect to its completion work. I originally noticed this in the Eagle Ford, as it had the best results of any unconventional horizontal wells on land in the United States. Originally it was believed the Eagle Ford was that much better with respect to geology, but other operators in the area such as Magnum Hunter  and Penn Virginia  under performed in Gonzales County. The differences were quite large, as EOG wells had 90-day IP rates triple that of Magnum and Penn. When the data is compared on a production/foot basis, EOG's wells improve further.

What separates EOG from other operators is how it looks at source rock stimulation. Operators have historically thought the deeper fractures would produce the most resource as it intermingled with the existing fractures. EOG is focusing on creating fractures close to the horizontal leg. Not only would the pressure create more and better fractures, it could possibly increase the number of locations per square mile. This would reduce the chances of communication between wells. With fractures closer to the well bore, it is easier to get the water and proppant pushed deeper into the source rock. In essence, we will see more pressure from the pump trucks exerted over a shorter distance. This would increase the fractures per square foot. In response, more proppant and water would be needed per foot. Tighter stages would be beneficial as this would produce additional fracturing.

KOG's Smokey Wells Have Been Updated; Pembroke Oil Field, Williston Basin

Link here to the Smokey wells.

Next Week: Williston Basin Oil & Gas Career Expo -- June 25, 2013

Link here.

Grand Williston Hotel & Conference Center, formerly Airport International Inn & Suites.

Job Seekers  

Admission Requirements: Candidates must have a minimum of 2 years of related industry experience on top of related certification, training or degree. US citizenship or green card available for onsite inspection required.

Meet face-to-face with local and national employers.

Highlights Of The Williston Wire

Headlines only, no links. It is easy to subscribe to The Williston Wire.

New hotel to open in Williston: Dakota Landing residence hotel; 257 rooms.

Williston-based Nordak Properties, LLC, will have a groundbreaking ceremony on July 10, 2013, for its newest project, Epping Ranch; 250-acre development.

A new Cash Wise grocery store begins construction in Tioga. I believe this has been posted on the blog some time ago that Cash Wise was coming to Tioga.

Home of Economy has announced it will open its largest store to day; 87,000 square feet; Jamestown. Think the $2 billion fertilizer factory coming to Jamestown.

BNSF forced to make record-setting capital improvements due to all the oil that is being shipped. I discussed that two or three years ago that this would happen; naysayers said it was unlikely that rail would play a significant role in the Bakken.

Production should hit 850,000 bopd by year-end, 2013.

Random Update Of EOG -- SeekingAlpha

Oil production in Texas’ Eagle Ford shale formation jumped 54% Y/Y in April; the nine fields that make up the majority of Eagle Ford yielded ~530K bbl/day of crude, after February output was revised higher by ~6%.

EOG Resources is the largest Eagle Ford leaseholder, with 639K net acres, and Chesapeake is next with 485K.

Disclaimer: this is not investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read here, but this is one of the reasons I like EOG, and Chesapeake, now: they are the largest leaseholders in the Eagle Ford, which over time, should be more productive and more profitable than the Bakken. 

All things being equal, being located closer to the Gulf helps lower transportation costs, though as more pipelines/railroad come on-line, transportation costs are less of a problem.

I think I read somewhere that takeaway capacity in the Bakken is about 800K bopd by rail in the Bakken, and about 500K bopd by pipeline. That ... here it is -- in yesterday's Dickinson Press:

In 2008, with an oversupply problem in Cushing, North Dakota reached its then-capacity for pipeline shipments of 189,000 barrels per day, leading producers to begin shipping by train to new markets.

Billions of dollars in rail and pipeline facilities have been built over the past few years, bumping North Dakota’s current rail shipping capacity to about 800,000 barrels daily and about 583,000 barrels by pipeline.

North Dakota is producing just under 800,000 bopd.

Elsewhere in the linked article:

... a barrel of West Texas Intermediate, the light sweet crude North Dakota produces, has been more than $20 cheaper than a premium Brent barrel over the past year, but the gap recently narrowed to less than half of that. WTI prices on Thursday were about $95 a barrel, compared to about $103 a barrel for Brent crude.

A barrel shipped by rail typically costs $2 to $3 more than if it were shipped by pipeline, Kringstad said.

“Spending an extra $2 or $3 to get an extra $8 — it’s not tough to see what the incentive is,” Kringstad said. “But since the price has narrowed, producers are reassessing their options. It’s all market driven with pricing.”

And the lede:

The percentage of North Dakota oil shipped by pipelines has dramatically slipped in the past year as producers have turned to trains to reach faraway U.S. refineries where premium prices are fetched based on foreign crude prices.

But state and industry officials believe the pendulum may be swinging back in favor of pipelines as the price differential narrows between domestic and overseas crude.

Looking For Loopholes In All The Right Places: O'BamaCare -- Massachusetts Will Suck $$$$$ From The Entire Nation -- Leaving Nothing For The Others -- Cue Up Connie Francis

From The Wall Street Journal:

Mr Kerry slipped an opaque provision into the Obama health law to require that Medicare wage reimbursements now come from a national pool of money, rather than state allocations. The Kerry kickback didn't get much notice, since it was cloaked in technicality and never specifically mentioned Massachusetts. But the senator knew exactly what he was doing.

You see, "rural" hospitals in Massachusetts are a class all their own. The Bay State has only one, a tiny facility on the tony playground of the superrich—Nantucket. Nantucket College Hospital's relatively high wages set the floor for what all 81 of the state's urban hospitals must also be paid. And since these dramatically inflated Massachusetts wages are now getting sucked out of a national pool, there's little left for the rest of America. Clever Mr. Kerry.

The change has allowed Massachusetts to raise its Medicare payout by $257 million, forcing cuts to hospitals in 40 other states. The National Rural Health Association and 20 state hospital associations in January sent a panicked letter to President Obama, noting that the Massachusetts manipulation of the program would hand that state $3.5 billion over the next 10 years at the expense of Medicare beneficiaries everywhere. They quoted Mr. Obama's former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Donald Berwick, admitting that "What Massachusetts gets comes from everybody else."

As long as we are on the topic, another $6 billion O'BamaCare boondoggle: workplace recreation centers: 

During the congressional debate over ObamaCare, few provisions stirred less controversy than an amendment providing incentives for companies to encourage their workers to stay healthy. It's a turbocharged version of "workplace wellness" programs: If employees fall short of their targets—on blood pressure or weight, for example—employers are allowed to make them contribute more to their health insurance. The idea is to rein in medical costs by reducing worker illness.

There's only one problem: Workplace wellness programs don't work. Such programs, which have been around for more than two decades, are ineffective at reducing costs, lack support in medical literature, are unpopular enough to require incentives, and are occasionally even harmful to employees.

The Rand Corp. recently released a study of workplace wellness that was undertaken at the behest of the Obama administration. The study strains to find positive results, but phrases like "the change is not statistically significant" and "the size of these effects is small and unlikely to be clinically meaningful" keep popping up.

Too Good To Post Just Once: Yes, For The Umpteenth Time -- Ben Was Fired

We already posted this story earlier but it's nice to see it really was in today's WSJ: the EPA closes the book on probing fracking in Wyoming. It will give the agency more time to probe deep, dark holes elsewhere. 

Speaking of which, Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole, also in Wyoming. Again, from wiki:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has hosted an annual economic policy symposium at Jackson Lake Lodge since 1982. They chose Jackson Hole in 1982 because of its trout fishing, as they were trying to attract Paul Volcker, who was Chairman of the Federal Reserve and a keen fly-fisherman.

It appears that Ben is so miffed about being thrown under the bus, along with Catholic educators, that he has announced he won't be attending the annual economic policy symposium in JHW. Okay, so yesterday, and the day before, reporters asked repeatedly, and opined endlessly, whether Ben had been fired. When he, or his handlers, announced that he would not be attending next year's JHWAEPS, that should have been as big a hint as folks needed. 

But reporters need confirmatory sources.

Except when publishing leaks and state secrets. 

Friday Morning Links And News

Active rigs: 187 (steady)

Wells coming off the confidential list today have been posted. 

RBN Energy: natural gas storage and pricing, last of 5 in a series.

George Will on President O'Bama, in the Washington Post:

The question of whether Barack Obama’s second term will be a failure was answered in the affirmative before his Berlin debacle, which has recast the question, which now is: Will this term be silly, even scary in its detachment from reality?

Before Berlin, Obama set his steep downward trajectory by squandering the most precious post-election months on gun-control futilities and by a subsequent storm of scandals that have made his unvarying project — ever bigger, more expansive, more intrusive and more coercive government — more repulsive. Then came Wednesday’s pratfall in Berlin.

Synonyms for President O'Bama: Irish; surreal; detached; scary. But the most descriptive: irrelevant. 

WSJ Links

One place one does not want to see the word "surprising": in a story about a farm bill. The WSJ headline: farm legislation suffers surprising defeat in House. I thought everybody like it. By definition farm bills are filled with pork and this bill was no different. President O'Bama threatened to veto it. Failure to pass the bill is said to be an "embarrassing" defeat for Speaker John Boehner. I doubt anything embarrasses these guys any more.

I seldom read Section M (Mansion) and today will be no different. Moving on to Section D (Arena). Wow, the "Me Generation" has taken crowdfunding to a new absurd level; I am so happy I only read about it; would never get asked, and if asked, would never contribute. Scrooge. Bah, humbug.

I knew it was all over for the Spurs when Miami forced a game 7.

Section C (Money & Investing): the Supreme Court threw out a class-action suit against American Express; the suit alleged that AmEx used its muscle in the corporate-card market to force merchants to accept the company's less desirable payment cards. The litigants signed agreements with AmEx to use arbitration to settle disputes; the court said the litigants need to stick to their contracts, and go to arbitration.

The other day the head of the IMF begged the US to end the sequester; she said the sequester was hurting the EU. Apparently Ben didn't get the memo. Spanish and Italian government bonds slumped yesterday after markets interpreted Bernanke's comments as signalling the start of the beginning of the likelihood that sometime in the very distant future the Fed might begin "tapering." Maybe.

Section B (Marketplace): how much trouble is Nokia in? Even Microsoft doesn't want the struggling mobile-phone business. Elsewhere the new SandRidge CEO says he will focus on fiscal discipline and drill only where they might strike oil. In Paris, the Russians continue to wow the west with their fighter aircraft: the Sukhoi (pronounced "suck air") Su-35 performed maneuvers that few Western aircraft can achieve, and if they could, would not be allowed to do so by the FAA. At least not while passengers were using their iPads in economy seating.

Speaking of which, in Section A we learn that the FAA will relax rules for gadget in flight:

The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to relax the ban on using some types of personal-electronic devices at low altitudes, allowing passengers leeway during taxiing and even takeoffs and landings, according to industry officials and draft recommendations prepared by a high-level advisory panel to the agency.

For fliers, the new rules would likely mean an end to familiar admonitions to turn off and stow all electronic devices. Cellphone calls are expected to remain off limits, however. The draft doesn't make any recommendations regarding phone use because the FAA didn't authorize the panel to delve into that particularly controversial area.

Details are still being debated by the group and inside the FAA and could change. Still, the draft report reflects a consensus that the existing rules, essentially unchanged since the 1960s, have been overtaken by dramatic changes in technology and passenger expectations.

Since the 1960s. Nice to see that the FAA is on top of things. It is my understanding that the FAA will move to strike "stewardesses" from their internal memos, replacing the term with something more gender neutral. In-flight concierges? From wiki: "... who serves guests with duties similar to those of a butler." Now, if only the airlines saw passengers as guests, not customers.

I see the FAA commissioned another study: Americans worked less, watched more TV in 2012. The fact is Americans are watching "monitors, not TV" more. But on a different note, the study found Americans had more time to watch monitors because they had more leisure time (if one considers unemployed and looking/not looking for a job "leisure"). 

On another weird note, I learned something today. I always thought they were "impatients" -- as in a hurry to bloom (or die). No, they are "impatiens." The good news: I wasn't too far wrong. From wiki:
The genus Latin name Impatiens means impatient or intolerant and refers to the behavior of the fruits containing the seeds, that explode at the minimum touch (hence the common name Balfour's touch-me-not. So, touch-me-not, a phrase not unfamiliar among husbands and wives.

We already posted this story earlier but it's nice to see it really was in today's WSJ: the EPA closes the book on probing fracking in Wyoming. It will give them more time to probe deep, dark holes elsewhere. 

Speaking of which, Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole, also in Wyoming. Again, from wiki:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has hosted an annual economic policy symposium at Jackson Lake Lodge since 1982. They chose Jackson Hole in 1982 because of its trout fishing, as they were trying to attract Paul Volcker, who was Chairman of the Federal Reserve and a keen fly-fisherman.

It appears that Ben is so miffed about being thrown under the bus, along with Catholic educators, that he has announced he won't be attending the annual economic policy symposium in JHW. Okay, so yesterday, and the day before, reporters asked repeatedly, and opined endlessly, whether Ben had been fired. When he, or his handlers, announced that he would not be attending next year's JHWAEPS, that should have been as big a hint as folks needed. 

Wow, the Supreme Court ruled that grant recipients do NOT have to adopt policy views as a funding requirement. Wow. So much for all those biased EPA studies about global warming. We should expect to see a lot of published papers retracted.

And the immigration bill moves along, now that they've ditched the "smart fence" and replaced it with (no, I won't go there) 20,000 more border agents. Some pundit suggested that 40,000 agents would allow one agent every 250 feet along the South Mexico-North Mexico border. If only. They will need 20,000 border agents just in El Paso and south of Tucson to make any difference. The ultimate goal is to have equal number of border agents and TSA agents, who will trade places every three months. This will give the TSA some needed exercise and fresh air, and the border agents access to Dunkin' Donuts.

I guess the Mexicans have already heard the news: the WSJ is reporting that fewer Mexicans are even coming to the US. The study was no doubt commissioned by the FAA.

There are many, many other articles of interest; I just don't have enough time to link any more right now. Sorry.