Retail Sales Surge — Huge Story -- And Katie Ledecky — July 16, 2021

Katie Ledecky: what makes her the most dominant Olympic swimmer? Long, long article in today's LA Times. The story is behind a paywall but one can find the story with no paywall.  And here it is. 

The five-time Olympic gold medalist owns world data within the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyles. The same old hole for a world file is as skinny as an Olympic medal. However Ledecky doesn’t simply beat data, she transforms them. The 800? She has the 24 quickest swims of all time. The 1,500? The highest 11 instances. The 400? Twelve of the highest 14 instances. 

At this post, what a reader has to say about Katie Ledecky. After posting the Ledecky links above, the same reader added this: great, long overdue attention being placed upon Katie Ledecky.

In the Forbes article, she mentions listening to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes for motivation. 

I do not know if you are familiar with that group, but they were considered the "World's Greatest Bar Band" in the late 70s/early 80s for their high energy, distinct sound playing Jersey Shore venues during this period.

Failing spectacularly: Katie Ledecky over at Forbes. 

Masks are back: forget the vaccine. Even if vaccinated, masks now required (again) in Los Angeles, starting midnight tonight. 

Most irritating commercial now on television: "just the beginnin'." Amazon's Black Business Accelerator to support Black-owned retail businesses. Nothing to do with race. It's simply an awful commercial. First question: did Sir Richard take any African-Americans into space with him? Asking for a friend.

Retail sales surge. Link here. 

• Growth and productivity vs inflation.
• These numbers must have put a smile on Jay Powell’s face this morning.
• from the linked article --
  

  U.S. retail sales were unexpectedly stronger last month, data from the Commerce Department indicated Friday, suggesting job gains and rising vaccination rates offset inflation concerns in the world's biggest economy.

  June retail sales rose 0.6% from last month to a collective $621.3 billion, the Commerce Department said, well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of a 0.4% decline. The May total, however, was revised to lower, to a decline of 1.7% on the month. Stripping out auto and gasoline sales, June retail sales were up 1.3%, the Commerce Department report noted.

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Back to the Bakken

Active rigs:

$71.94	7/16/2021	07/16/2020	07/16/2019	07/16/2018	07/16/2017
Active Rigs	23	11	56	69	58

No wells coming off the confidential list.

RBN Energy: how the FERC sets oil and gas pipeline rates. 

The uninitiated might be forgiven for thinking that oil and gas pipeline operations are similar. After all, they’re just long steel tubes that move hydrocarbons from one point to another, right? Well, that’s about where the similarity ends. While the oil and gas pipeline sectors are interlinked, they developed in quite distinctly different ways and that’s led to a vast chasm in both the way the two are regulated and how their transportation rates are determined. Bridging that gap between oil and gas can be a perilous and chaotic endeavor because you’ve got to consider how each sector evolved over time and the separate sets of rules that have been established to form today’s competitive marketplace. In today’s blog, we continue our review of oil and gas pipelines and how their separate histories led to the current differences in pipeline rate structures.