Friday, September 4, 2026

US Personal Savings Rate Reverses & Surges -- I Wonder What This Means? September 4, 2026

Locator: 51664ECONOMY.

Link here

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Movie Night

Lost In Translation Too many to count "lost in translation" videos on YouTube.

Here's one. Link here

Huge: Anthropic Adds Apple's CarPlay Integration To The Claude IOS App -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51663CARPLAY.

This really is huge. 

Link here

Interesting on so many levels.  

I Thought All This Hot Weather -- Global Warming -- Was Going To Result In More Hurricane Activity -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51662GIFTING.

Link here

Gifting -- It's Hard To Believe The WSJ Had To Post This -- I Figured This Out On My Won Some Time Ago -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51662GIFTING.

Pageviews: just went over 91 million page views cumulative. Current run rate, 400,000 pageviews/hour.

The WSJ

Link here

A must read.

I've added this article to my family blog on investing.  

Daily Activity Report -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51661B.

Iran: pundits "unhappy" that Trump calls the conflict against Iran "small potatoes." He's correct. Will the US hit Pickaxe over the three-day weekend? Tea leaves suggest that could happen.

Lebanon: Israel using their time and resources wisely -- taking out Hezbollah, one day at a time. We're seeing the transformation of the Middle East in real time. 

WMB: up slightly today; trading near its 52-week high; pays 3%.

Brent: WTI will go into the three-day weekend above $91. Never thought I would see this price this high this long. MPC up a bit today; CVX down over one percent (profit trading or euphoria over Venezuela has evaporated). Bullison on Brent (see below); same with WTI. 

Saudi Arabia, Humain: link here

Broadcom

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: green for the day;  at close, trading at $91.48.

Active rigs: 35.

No new permits.

Seven permits renewed

  • Hess (4): four EN-Van Berkom permits; Sorkness oil field, Mountrail County;
  • Petro-Hunt (3): three on same pad, Little Knife oil field, Dunn County, Charles Tompkins (2) and Charles Rand.

Alison's Quick Connects -- Top Stories Past Week -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51660B.

Quick connects:

What Oklahoma opposed is approved in Montana and North Dakota -- OK Energy Today
Summit forfeits two storage permits in ND, continues fight over third -- North Dakota Monitor
Benefits of data centers take center stage at legislative meeting -- North Dakota Monitor
North Dakota rig count holds steady at 35 despite two units coming offline -- Bakken Wire
North Dakota lawmakers reexamine tax incentive used to attract data centers -- KFYR-TV
Legislative committee convenes to examine policy, community impacts of data center expansion -- WZFG
Judge erred in sentencing Canadian climate activist who shot up ND power station -- Dickinson Press
State could collect more oil tax money, Legacy Fund earnings than predicted -- Prairie Public Newsroom
Armstrong applauds legislation banning synthetic kratom, restricting sales -- Governor's News Release
Opinion: Applied Digital expects to be one of the largest taxpayers in North Dakota history -- Williston Herald
Production surges in June as drilling rig count experiences sharp summer spike -- McKenzie County Farmer
Effort to ban NDAs for data centers fails floor action; bill will not advance toward becoming law -- KFYR-TV
Pitching 940-acre data center, Prometheus Hyperscale asks Natrona County to approve plan -- WyoFile
Economic growth is stunted in Wyoming due to lack of electrons, industrial customers say -- WyoFile
Legislature rescues Military Gallery, seeks new safeguards for future projects -- North Dakota Monitor
Fargo state Rep. Jim Kasper to attend special session remotely due to stroke recovery -- Dickinson Press
Retired teacher to run for North Dakota House seat held by legislator who died in plane crash -- InForum
North Dakota AG says "burdensome" requests caused state to withdraw from Meta lawsuit -- KVRR
North Dakota Ethics Commission plans to ask for more staff, citing workload -- North Dakota Monitor
New North Dakota State Senator Jamie Selzler braces for first legislative special session -- WZFG
Legislature rejects adding childcare, data center moratorium for special session -- North Dakota Monitor
Tribes forced to re-argue successful challenge of discriminatory ND legislative map -- Native News Online
Trump approves Armstrong's request for presidential major disaster declaration for June storms -- KFYR-TV
Work begins to remove and relocate human remains discovered at Governor's Residence -- KFYR-TV
NDDOT to begin fall mowing operations along state highways in early to mid-September -- Bismarck Tribune
Cramer says renewed tension between the U.S. and Canada will be a short-term issue -- Dickinson Press
US Education Secretary visits Dickinson schools and Southwest Area CTE Academy -- Dickinson Press
School year puts pressure on aging buildings, impedes comfortable learning conditions -- Minot Daily News
Southwest Area CTE Academy director named NDACTE Administrator of the Year -- Dickinson Press
Williston State College sees growth in dual credit despite 5% fall enrollment decline -- Williston Herald
Grenora Public School staff start school year with connection with convocation festivities -- Williston Herald
Minot Public Schools invites community to attend a School Safety and Security Night -- Minot Daily News
NDDPI launching new effort in which superintendent, staff volunteer to substitute teach -- Minot Daily News
University of North Dakota medical simulation program expands to western ND -- Minot Daily News
Opinion: We don't need politicians micromanaging technology in the classroom -- Williston Herald
School districts struggle to sell bond measures; failed votes raise questions -- The Center Republican
Arnegard drops school purchase, moves toward city hall and community center -- McKenzie County Farmer
Rangeland impacted by produced water pipeline leak 13 miles northwest of Williston -- Bismarck Tribune
First step of corridor identification, development of passenger rail service almost complete -- Dickinson Press
MHA Nation transparency questions becoming an issue in 2026 tribal election -- McKenzie County Farmer
Bowman County Commission addresses HVAC and road improvement concerns -- Dickinson Press
North Dakota native shares knowledge as sustainability coordinator at presidential library -- KFYR-TV
Trenton Volunteer Fire Department gets room to grow with $5M fire station addition -- Williston Herald
Lightning strike sparks major fire at McKenzie County Saltwater Disposal site -- McKenzie County Farmer
Storms from Pacific Northwest continue to effect southwest North Dakota -- Bowman County Pioneer
Mercer County Ambulance Service receives $10K in donations through Coal County Ride -- The Beacon
Drought deepens across ND; McKenzie receives Federal Disaster Designation -- McKenzie County Farmer
Dickinson roundabouts near completion; Highway 22, Museum Drive set for repairs -- Dickinson Press
One of the hottest technologies to squeeze more oil from US shale fields is soap -- Los Angeles Times
What we know about Trump's deal giving US access to vast oil reserves in Venezuela -- KX News
Researchers expect 'biggest year yet' for state bills related to energy siting in 2027 -- North Dakota Monitor
Trump urges strong support for data centers ahead of midterm elections, "let Data Reign." -- ABC News
America doesn't have an artificial intelligence problem. It has a competitiveness problem. -- RealClearEnergy
Chevron expands Venezuela presence with $7 billion plan to double oil output in five years -- Reuters
Treasury Secretary says Gulf oil producers could bypass the Strait of Hormuz within two years -- Oil Price
Federal judge allows anti-trust lawsuit accusing US shale producers of price fixing to proceed -- Oil Price
Worldwide oil refining crunch will likely keep global fuel prices elevated into the next year -- Oil Price
Why America's growing electric demand from the AI boom needs a revival of nuclear power -- Daily Caller
Why cutting carbon dioxide emissions would have virtually no effect on global warming -- CO2 Coalition
Mainstream media's ghoulish race to turn Nepal's deadly floods into a "climate crisis" -- Legal Insurrection
It's a fair question: Who's really paying for the news media's biased climate reporting? -- RealClearEnergy

Just Like The Dot-Com Debacle, We're Now Seeing A Gazillion Companies That Simply Sell Webpages And Don't Offer Much In Return -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51659CATFOOD.

Oh-oh: like the dot-com era, we've now entered the "silly season." CNBC anchors appear to be interviewing each day and every day no less than dozens of CEOs of start-up companies that are offering the equivalent of delivering cat food treats to your doorstop. But with a tag that says "made with AI in mind. Your cat will love it."

The Persian Gulf And The Blockade Of Iran -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51658BLOCKADE.

David Byrne -- Of "Talking Heads" Fame -- In The OSCAR Race For Best Song -- Elon Musk -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51657BYRNE.

Equity investing during wartime. The US economy hitting on all 12 cylinders and we get this, LOL:

It's been a long time since I've seen so much red.

Oscar race


My favorite "Talking Heads" song:

Link here. "Life During Wartime." 

David Byrne: on the autism continuum, and that was before the vaccine controversy. LOL.

I always wondered when I would get a chance to post this video? 

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As Good As Any Place To Post This
 

Karen out in Santa Monica, CA, led me down this rabbit hole. Fifteen minutes of my life that I will never get back. 

 Tag: CalPers California Natalie Winters


 Google query

Didn’t BlackRock have securities compliant with DEI?
Reply:  
Yes, BlackRock historically integrated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) metrics into its regulatory filings and investment stewardship policies. As the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock routinely files required securities disclosures with the SEC. 
For years, these documents actively detailed its commitment to DEI and laid out clear diversity benchmarks for the companies it invested in.

Query:

Does Saudi Aramco comply with Sharia Law?

Reply:

Query:

CalPERS invests in a very, very small number of Shariah-compliant securities, such as Saudi Aramaco. Do any other states or public entities or the US government invest in such securities?

Reply:

Chart Of The Day -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51656DEBT.

Rick Santelli: to retire October 2. He has one last jobs report to report.  

See this post

From JPM's "Rear Window" report. Link here

To what extent is the US Treasury even relevant even more with regard to debt issuance? 

 

Cramer's First Hour -- Cramer Is "Off" This Morning -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51655CRAMER.

MARINE TRAFFIC link: link here

Some would argue that Cramer is always "off." In today's context, Cramer being "off" refers to Cramer have the morning "off" -- not being on the air this morning. LOL.

I may do the same thing: take the day off.  

Some last comments:

  • the Fed chairman says the US is at "full employment";
  • CNBC senior analyst suggests that a Fed rate increase will not affect this "type" of inflation;
  • Carl Q did say today's jobs report was a "barnburner"
  • Carl Q did (correctly) say that it's a distilled/product problem and NOT an oil problem. 
  • NEC's Hassett: this number was way, way better than expected 
    • Hassett may have hit the number on the head: due to all that AI buildout
      • AI facilities breaking ground; and, electric utilities breaking out in terms of construction, not necessarily share price 
    • similar to the high-growth years during the internet breakout decades ago 
    • US remains the best place in the world to invest 
  • JPM study released this week on hyperscalers' debt issuance


 

Jobs report:

  • truly amazing; an incredible jobs report -- some of these incredibly good numbers have not been seen in years -- and yet the mainstream media is trying interpret the jobs report in a "negative" manner. It gets tedious. 
  • WSJ, link here, "much stronger-than-expected." Carl Q on CNBC, a "barnburner of a report."

Boeing -- More Bad News Being Reported By The Wall Street Journal -- September 4, 2026

Locator: 51654INVESTING.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but with all the great opportunities out there, I have no idea why mom-and-pop retail investors would consider investing in Boeing any time during the past few years. 

For the past five years, a negative 3% return.

For investors, the glory years for Boeing investors was 2018 - 2019. Since then ... "max": 

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Disclaimer

Briefly

  • I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
  • I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
  • I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
  • See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
  • Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
  • If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
  • Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
  • I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
  • And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution. 
  • I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom. Now, I've added Amazon. And QCOM.
  • Longer version here.
  • August Jobs Report: 3x Expecation -- Previous Report Also Update -- Previous Report Went From "Negative" To "Positive"

    Locator: 51653JOBS.

    Open borders: it would be interesting to know what the unemployment rate in this country would have been had Biden not opened the borders. 

    It's well known that there is a subset of workers (undocumented visitors) that are not counted and take jobs away from Americans. I'm not making a value judgement or whether the US could do so well without these undocumented visited -- I'm simply reporting a factoid that is seldom mentioned except among the MAGA folks. 

    Most interesting: this was one of the very rare times that the U6 number (total unemployed) number was also reported. 

    I've always felt that U6 was a much better gauge than the U3 number. I've posted that on the blog years ago when I actually tracked the jobs report each month. Now, I report it rarely. Mostly on otherwise slow news days. 

    New jobs: 162K vs 53K expected. 3.05x.

    July report (the previous report) was revised and showed an even better report: 21K (positive) vs a negative 23K.  

    71K on average for the past three months. Some suggest the number is a) due to volatility; b) fake. 

    Unemployment rate: remains at 4.1%.

    Incredible report.

    We will see it posted later. 

    Even the "total unemployed" (U6) improved from 7.9% to 7.7%. 

    Economy:

    These numbers are incredible.

    Steven Liesman, of course .... aguafiestas. Cherry-picking. Doesn't like the two-month report -- doesn't fit the narrative; now Steve goes back three months to show that "nothing has changed." 

    Futures fall after the release of the jobs report -- more likely that the Fed will increase the "Fed rate" in September. If next CPI report is even a bit "negative" with regard to inflation (which it most likely will be), the Fed will be forced to raise rates 25 basis points. Aguafiestas.  

    For the view from The NYT, link here

    RBN Energy Setting The Bar On Energy Reporting -- Eleven Largest NEW AI Center Facilities In EARLY, EARLY Stages -- September 4, 2026

    Locator: 51652AI.

    RBN Energy continues to set the bar on energy reporting. Scroll to bottom of the article. Note the shout out by Gemini. 

    States:

    • Texas: 5 (four are in the top eight); #1 is in Amarillo, TX
    • Ohio: 1 (#2)
    • Wyoming: 1 (Jade, #3)
    • Utah: 1 (#4)
    • Louisiana: 1 (#6)
    • Maryland: 1 (#9)
    • Tennessee: 1 (#11)


    Query

    Unless I missed it, for some reason Project Kilby, 2.67 GW facility near Pecos, Texas, a joint venture between Microsoft-Chevron.

    Reply:

    **************************
    A Bit More

    Thank you:

    Thank you so much. No, nothing else. Yes, I mentioned on my blog Project Kilby seemed to be a sleeper. Announced In June 22, 2026, it seems to have been missed by a lot of folks. RBN Energy has a huge blog on it. But again, thank you so much for adding Project Kilby to the list. 

    Reply:

    Project Kilby -- A Chevron - Microsoft Joint Partnership, Behind-The-Meter Initiative To Solve The AI Grid Problem -- September 4, 2026

    Locator: 51651AI.

    Chevron-Microsoft-BTM Power-The Permian-20-Year-Agreement-Pecos-Reeves County-Energy Forge One-Joulent 

    Energy Forge One: 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent (a new energy company)
    Kilby
    : a 50/50 joint venture between Energy Forge One and Chevron

    This has been previously posted but might have been lost in all the clutter. This is a big, big deal.  

    It was first announced by Microsoft / Partner back on June 22, 2026, but seems to have been a sleeper. Considering the size of this project and novel financial / partnership features, it certainly didn't seem to get much press.


     

    RBN Energy: how Chevron's Project Kilby aims to rewire the Permian Basin for the AI power era. Link here

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the global energy landscape faster than any technological shift in recent memory, but electricity has become the defining constraint. Chevron’s Project Kilby, a natural‑gas‑fired, behind‑the‑meter (BTM) power plant built specifically to supply a Microsoft‑operated data center under a 20‑year agreement, represents a strategic pivot for Chevron into a new business vertical: supplying hyperscale AI computing with dedicated energy infrastructure. In today’s RBN blog, we explain how this venture is a potential blueprint for how natural gas, land, water and industrial engineering could be combined to meet the demands of the AI era.

    AI has strained the grid, interconnection queues stretch for years, renewable generation remains intermittent, and transmission buildout lags far behind demand. Hyperscalers need power now, at unprecedented scale, with reliability approaching that of mission‑critical industrial systems. In this environment, the companies that can deliver dedicated, dispatchable, high‑density electricity directly to compute infrastructure will define the next decade of digital growth. 

    Oil supermajor Chevron is forging the path to a solution by partnering with Microsoft to construct and deliver reliable, dedicated power for next-generation AI infrastructure in West Texas. Project Kilby is the first major initiative of Energy Forge One, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent, an energy company formed in June to supply electricity directly to AI-focused data centers. (Joulent was founded by investment firm Engine No. 1 in collaboration with GE Vernova.)  Daniel Droog, Chevron’s VP of Power, points out that data centers are not just a project, but a systems engineering challenge. Energy Forge One integrates land, energy, water, supply chains, community engagement and infrastructure, a level of development at scale that few companies can match. A final investment decision (FID) is expected by year-end 2026 with first power expected in 2028 and full capacity likely in 2031.