Closing Out The Poll -- Predicting Long Term Trend For Price Of Oil -- January 22, 2016

This worked out well. I wanted to close up at least one of the polls at the sidebar at the right but didn't know how/when to do it. But here's the opportunity. The Dickinson Press is reporting that NDIC Director Lynn Helms "predicts oil prices to rise again in foreseeable future." The article is a particularly good article for the archives.

So with that headline and that link, here are the results of the poll in which we asked readers their prediction for the long-term price for oil:

• A - low prices and with little volatility: 6%
• B - abrupt spike back to $100+ oil: 28%
• C - remain a trading range between $20 and $60 but with significant volatility: 49%

Could I have made the graph or the poll any more difficult? 13%

Two comments:

• it was suggested I was among the enthusiastic idiots that just got in (I assume the reader was suggesting that prices are as low as they're going to get, and the only direction is "up")
• $60 - $80 

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Bakken Birth Record: Almost 900 Babies Born In Williston In 2015 

From the Oil Patch Dispatch:

Hospitals in Williston and Minot each reported a record number of deliveries last year, and Dickinson had the most births in one year since the 1980s oil boom.

“We have not slowed down with the oil going down,” said Leona Lambert, who oversees OB services for Mercy Medical Center in Williston.

Williston had a record 882 births in 2015, up from 804 in 2014.

Vicky Wiebe, who became a new mom in Williston last year, said the numbers show that many workers who relocated their families to North Dakota have decided to stay despite the recent downturn.

Others:

• Minot: 1,716 deliveries, up three from 2014
• Dickinson: 682 births, up from 611 in 2014
• Watford City's hospital does not deliver babies, so most of Watford's moms would have delivered in Williston.