What We Will Be Talking About Monday -- May 31, 2015

Updates

June 1, 2015: the Greek story? I was spot on. 

June 1, 2015: so how did we do? I was wrong when I said we wouldn't be talking about California today, although when I said that, I did mention that California will provide us many subjects to discuss throughout the month, including ObamaCare, the drought, and the minimum wage. It turns out there is a minimum wage story today. It turns out a child care center employee had her hours cut by 25% from eight hours to six hours/day; from 40 hours to 30 hours. The Los Angeles Times reports that the employee had her hours cut by 25% when the minimum wage kicked in, and that may be just the start. Her employer says that the day care center may have to close, and re-open as an after-school center. All because of the minimum wage. Regular readers know that The Los Angeles Times op-ed after op-ed asking for any examples where minimum wage hikes less to job losses or to businesses having to shut down. I guess we have our first example. Surprised to see The Los Angeles print this story.

June 1, 2015: so how did we do? Yup, 8 hours ago, Reuters posts the story on rig count -- whether drillers should crouch or pounce.  There are several stories on Greece but that was a no brainer. The big story I forgot: there are only six states that currently ban "open carry" outright. Texas is was one of those six. Today, the governor will sign the bill allowing open carry in Texas. It will get a lot of play in the east, but the stories will fail to mention that the six "states" that ban open carry include District of Columbia and New York -- and we've seen how that works out.

Original Post 

Greece heads the list. Everything points to things getting crazy as we get closer to default. Great political theater. At a minimum, the creditors will find a way to delay another 30 days.

Mideast: there are no embedded US journalists within ISIS and that's why we are getting such little news here in the states regarding "shock and awe" and the JV team, but it's clear things are building for a summer offensive. The torching of Iraq's largest refinery this past month does not bode well for the country. That one refinery was responsible for producing one-third of Iraq's domestic fuel supplies. The most interesting development: the White House clearly stating that the US is no longer responsible for Saudi Arabia's security.

Rig count: the number of active rigs in North Dakota will start the week at a record post-boom low. Some readers have suggested the number could go (much?) lower. I'll never find the post, but I think I once said 75 would be the lowest it would ever go, but maybe I'm thinking I said that.

Politics: except for those who live for politics, I don't think anyone else cares. All politics is local and the local races haven't begun for 2016. At the national level, the Democrats will coronate Hillary at the end of July, 2016, in Philadelphia. The Republican national convention will be held about 10 days earlier in Cleveland, Ohio, no doubt the home of the 2015 NBA champions. It's hard to believe but the 2015 championship series has not yet begun and it's already June. Carly and Scott will be the GOP nominees for P and VP. Not necessarily respectively.

ObamaCare premiums for 2016 will grab the headlines in November, 2015, now that we're starting to see trial balloons being released. New Mexico regulators will never allow a 50% increase in premiums.

California we won't be talking about tomorrow unless there's a big earthquake, but with big corporations leaving the state (most recently, Broadcom), ObamaCare, the drought, and the minimum wage in Los Angeles, there will be plenty to talk about over the next few months.

The Obama-Asian Trade Bill no one cares about will not be on the agenda at Williston's Cash Wise deli tomorrow morning, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Waylon Reminisces

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Cable News Ratings

For the archives:

According to Nielsen “most current” estimates for the Dec. 29, 2014-March 29, 2015 quarter, Fox News cruised to a primetime victory in the key news demo of adults 25-54.

Fox News averaged 328,000 viewers nightly (up 9% vs. a year ago) and was followed by CNN (192,000, up 11%), MSNBC (136,000, down 40%) and HLN (130,000, up 11%).

CNN has now beaten MSNBC in primetime for four consecutive quarters. And for MSNBC, whose “Rachel Maddow Show” and “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” had their worst showing on record, this is its lowest-rated quarter since Q2 in 2006.

Fox News was again especially dominant on weeknights, where its average audience of 409,000 adults 25-54 was larger than CNN (207,000) and MSNBC (131,000) combined.

I'm not surprised Fox News won by a landslide, I'm surprised, that CNN beat MSNBC, and even worse, HLN almost beat MSNBC. HLN is simply a video loop.