Happy Fourth Of July -- The Market Closes Early Today; I'm Wrapping It Up Early For Now

From Yahoo!In-Play:

• Enterprise Products Partners and Enbridge announced that the 512-mile loop of the Seaway Pipeline system from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Jones Creek storage and terminal facility near Freeport, Texas, is mechanically complete. The new 30-inch Seaway Loop Pipeline is expected to more than double the capacity of the Seaway system to 850,000 bopd.

I assume this is the "Seaway Reversal." If folks recall: the Keystone XL was to have capacity of about 850,000 bopd.  There is a "Seaway" tag that will take you other Seaway stories on the blog.

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A Good News Story ... For Some

North Dakota At The Top For Jobs -- 32 States Lagging

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Five years after the Great Recession officially ended, most states still haven't regained all the jobs they lost, even though the nation as a whole has.

North Dakota is an exception.

In May, the overall economy finally recovered all 9 million jobs that vanished in the worst downturn since the 1930s. Another month of solid hiring is expected in the U.S. jobs report for June that will be released today.

Yet 32 states still have fewer jobs than when the recession began in December 2007 — evidence of the unevenness and persistently slow pace of the recovery.

Other data points at the linked article:

• North Dakota has added 100,000 jobs since December 2007 — a stunning 28 percent increase, by far the nation’s highest numbers in job creation -- I assume it's all the wind farms; the article did not mention the Bakken, BNSF, ethanol, or agriculture
• Illinois is down 184,000 jobs from pre-recession levels; factory layoffs
• New Jersey is down 147,000, factory layoffs
• Florida is down 170,000 in the aftermath of its real estate market collapse
• Washington D.C., where lobbying is an all but recession-proof occupation, are up 49,000, or 7 percent
• Wall Street’s recovery from the financial crisis has helped New York gain 237,000 jobs since the recession ended, an increase of nearly 3 percent

That's really quite phenomenal: the population of North Dakota was around 650,000 people (before the boom) -- that includes everyone: men, women, and children; workers and non-workers. To add 100,000 new jobs in the past seven years is ... well, stunning, as The Bismarck Tribune writes. And even more jobs are opening every day. Absolutely stunning.

When you get right down to it, 32 states lagging is not a good commentary on the economy overall. People coming to work in North Dakota are not coming here for the weather. Five years into the recovery and a trillion dollars in stimulus, and here we are. Thirty-two states still struggling.

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Odd Bit Of Trivia For This Weekend's Cocktail Parties

Quick: name the country that accounts for 67% (2 out of 3) of Europe's deliveries for Tesla.

Answer: Norway.

The country is oil-rich, and the people are environmentally conscious.

But the numbers are in for the most recent quarter: deliveries to Norway dropped almost 50% in the latest data. Apparently Tesla sales in Norway are not on fire. One wonders if word-of-mouth about battery reliability in cold weather has anything to do with this?

Tesla may have to depend on China to fill the gap.

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Will She Be Driving A Tesla 18 Years From Now

 Our third granddaughter at two days of age or thereabouts.