Clearing Out The In-Box -- October 5, 2019

Jobs in America: record number employed; unemployment rate best in 50 years; folks are actually asking "how low can the unemployment rate go?" Mainstream media's headline: job growth slowing down. Well, duh. Unemployment:

• for whites: 3.2%
• adult men: 3.2%
• adult women: 3.1% (will go lower if Biden's plan to bring 720 million women back into the workforce)
• teenagers: 12.5%
• Asians: 2.5% (no typo: 2.5%) -- I find that interesting that Asian unemployment is actually lower than "white" unemployment -- reverse discrimination? Harvard has a plan to stop that, I know.
• Hispanics: at 3.9%, a record low; has never been this low; never;
• African-Americans: maintains record low of 5.5% set in August

Less than a week away, 10/10/19:

Apple: strong demand for the new iPhone 11;

• here; 

Pacific Northwest: looking forward to higher gasoline prices; link here at Platt's --

• west coast refineries operating at just 78% of capacity
• the lowest since November, 2016
• almost 20% lower than this time last year
• why: can't get enough crude oil
• why: Pacific Northwest limiting CBR
• much more at the linked site

Wind capacity in the US: EIA link here, September 27, 2019;

So, how do you interpret this headline (link here):

At the linked article:

• 3,204 MW of solar gas canceled in ERCOT
• 284 MW ok'd for operation -- 
• yeah, that's what I thought; "284" is such a small number, I thought it was all wind/solar; wrong
• I thought was solar
• nope, here's the data:
• fifteen projects (wind, solar, natural gas) were canceled in September
• two projects went forward
  a 100-MW natural gas plant
• a 184-MW wind farm (at 25% likely production, translates to 46 MW)

Later: regarding the ERCOT story above, I was "appalled" to the degree which the ERCOT folks would try to spin this story. Apparently another reader saw the very same thing; that reader wrote me:

The quotes trying to make this great news for solar seems to be a real stretch.

Of the 3,204 MW of generation canceled in September, 2,491 MW was solar and 713 MW was gas-fired. Manan Ahuja, S&P Global Platts Analytics manager of North American Power analytics, noted that the number of projects canceled was not unusual, exactly equal to last September's project cancellations.

I first saw that story at twitter:

Fake news: "jobs drying up in the Permian" -- read the story to see for yourself and if still confused, read the comments; first hint that it's fake news -- it's an "oil" story by Bloomberg

Social Security:

• for all those folks who were worried that "Social Security" would run out of money, not gonna happen; need proof? 
• politicians who make the Social Security laws are now looking at increasing benefits across the board; 
• it's going to be hard for a senior to vote "against" Pocahontas when she promises an increase of $200/month for all Social Security recipients;
• Paul Krugman: debt doesn't matter; 
• the story is not in some left-leaning tabloid; it's in The Wall Street Journal;

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, career, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

Investing: will Enbridge (ENB) beat estimates again? Clickbait: the article doesn't give estimates for the 3Q19 report, unless I missed that, which is very possible. So, what are estimates for ENB this quarter?

• mean estimate: 39 cents (EPS last quarter: 50 cents)
• high: 42 cents
• low: 30 cents

For the next fiscal year:

• range: $1.60 to $2.15
• mean estimate: $2.00

Do you really want to park your Tesla in your garage, attached to your McMansion? Unless you have a mother-in-law bedroom above the garage? Link here.

• Close reading of the article suggests that "over-charging" the batteries is the problem. Tesla fixed that problem by over-the-air software updates to prevent over-charging. The updates reduced the range of the involved Teslas by 25 miles. 
• Murphy's law of EVs: when you have but 20 miles range remaining, the map reveals the next EV charging station 25 miles away.

Best quote of the day, from a reader: "I hope Ruth Bader Ginsburg lives long enough to see Trup re-elected."

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For The Granddaughters