Weekend Reading -- Maybe -- March 20, 2015

A couple of days ago I was sent what looked like a great article on the Bakken but never got around to reading it. I was too tired to read it when I first got the article and now that the weekend is here, I'm into my marathon DVD movie watching in between water polo games this weekend -- a two-day tournament -- our older granddaughter has four games tomorrow and three games on Sunday.

So, I probably won't be reading many articles on the Bakken this weekend. And now, adding insult to injury, which is not quite the right metaphor, another reader has sent me links to two more articles that appear to be worth reading. So, to keep these all altogether, where I can find them again, I will post the links to these three (3) stories here.

"Bakken, Not Beaten," Oil and Gas Journal
"Some Anxiety, But No Slowdown for North Dakota Oil Boomtown," NPR
"Williams County, North Dakota, Is The Best County In America, In Three Maps," Worthalike.com 

Don't let that discourage you -- that I haven't read all these articles yet; if you see a good article on the Bakken, I would be thrilled to get the link.

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Fly-Over Country Vs The Coasts

From the linked article above, "Williams County Is The Best County In America, In Three Maps":

There are several story lines here, the most important being the obvious of course.

But this is what is very, very scary. The US was entering the worse recession since the Great Depression in 2008 time-frame and certainly at its worse by 2009. Since than a gazillion dollars has been "spent" to jump-start the economy. Considering the recession was the worse since the Great Depression back in 2008 - 2010, one would assume that by 2012 it would have been quite easy to show a relative increase in median income across much of the nation. But even with the "recovery," most of the country remains "blue," or depressed.