Nothing About The Bakken; Nothing About Energy -- April 27, 2017

The Amazon Page

Source: AEI

Amazon Prime 

Yahoo!Finance posted this story a few hours before Amazon announced quarterly earnings: why it doesn't matter that Amazon's most popular service costs it billions. Data points:

• most popular service: Amazon Prime
• 80 million users (apparently US users)
• up 38% from a year ago
• if accurate, that suggests that nearly two-thirds of American households have Prime subscriptions
• (wow, wouldn't the political parties love to have those address lists; maybe they do)
• Prime members spend an average of $1,300 annually; vs $700 for typical non-Prime member
• much, much more than just fast delivery

More at the link.

Amazon Earnings

Amazon extends growth streak, unfazed by lavish spending -- Bloomberg. Data points:

• unbroken 20-year streak of double-digit revenue growth
• no signs of slowing this year
• topped profit and revenue estimates in 1Q17
• projected sales that may beat projections in the current period
• shares surged as much as 5% in extending trading
• closed during the regular session at a record $918.76; has jumped 23% this year

Bezos is just $5 billion away from being the world's richest person -- Bloomberg.
would surpass Bill Gates, the world's #1 billionaire since May, 2013

Google Earnings

Smash estimates -- CNBC.

• EPS: $7.73 vs $7.39 forecast
• revenue: $24.75 billion vs $24.22 billion forecast

Microsoft Earnings

Missed.

Global Warming

Not just droughts, but all extreme weather is at declining, at, or near record lows. And it all happened within the first 100 days of President Trump's presidency.

US drought in the US fell to a record low this week -- USA Today. Happened on President Trump's watch -- in his first 100 days. Only 6.1% of the lower 48 states is currently experiencing dry enough conditions to be called a drought. This is the lowest percentage in the 17-year history of the weekly US Drought Monitor report. The previous record low occurred in July, 2010, when 7.7% of the continuous US was not in drought. Hmmm, that's funny. President Obama did not mention that (as far

as I recall).

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Socialists' Math

From story regarding FBI investigation of failed college in New Hampshire:

Jane Sanders, wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., overstated donation amounts in a bank application for a $6.7 million loan the college used to purchase a prime 33-acre property on Lake Champlain in 2010.

She told People’s United Bank in 2010 that the college had $2.6 million in pledged donations to support the purchase of the former Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington property.

The college, however, received only $676,000 in actual donations from 2010 through 2014, according to figures provided by Burlington College.

I could care less, but look how far down in that very, very long story for Bernie Sanders name to show up. Had this been a story on Flynn's wife, let's say, completely unrelated to the POTUS, one can bet Trump's name would have been in the first paragraph.

It will be interesting to see where the FBI investigation leads. Something tells me the US Attorney General wants no brick left unturned in this one.