And then they wonder why retail investors are afraid to invest.
These must be the same guys are warn us about global warming, how a 0.1 degree increase in global temperature will destroy earth as we know in 100 years from now.
Meanwhile, one of the more successful investors in the past century has quietly increased his stake in Phillips 66. As of May 23, Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's massive conglomerate, held a 14.88 percent stake, or more than 75 million shares, in Phillips 66 worth $6.17 billion.
The 4-week average increased just slightly below 4% year-over-year. We continue to get closer to the 10 million bopd threshold, which I believe, would be a record.
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Other Blogs
Last night I had the opportunity to visit some of my favorite blogs. One of them is Mark Perry's Carpe Diem, once a stand-alone, now part of AEI. Look what Mark wrote last night: "A 'hat tip' to Warren Meyer of the Coyote Blog who originated the Venn diagram approach to highlight intellectual inconsistencies.
If readers have any suggestions for blogs I might like, please feel free to send me suggestions.
I get some wonderful long "essays" in private e-mails from some readers. I may not reply to all of them, but I get to most of them.
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A Note To The Granddaughters
We were stationed in Turkey back in 1994 or thereabouts. After leaving, there were a few boxes we never got around to unpacking. Between that move from Turkey to our most recent move one month ago, some unopened boxes made a half-dozen more moves: Turkey to Prattville, AL, to Langley AFB, VA, to San Antonio, TX, (three different locations/three moves) and then to DFW area (two different moves.
We finally opened the last of those boxes. We now have a few boxes in storage but they are new, mostly books.
We numbered all our boxes when moving and placed an "inventory" on the outside. The numbering was by room/location. So this was Box #3 from the storage closet. It included memorabilia from Williston's centennial celebration (1989) and darts from England, where we were stationed in 1990. The F-15 Eagle plaque from our first (1983) tour or our second (1991) tour at Bitburg AB, Germany.
The market continues to climb the "wall of worry." Oil takes an interesting turn in light of the news coming out of Vienna. This suggests to me that oil traders had priced in the expected OPEC outcome.
Last night I had the opportunity to visit some of my favorite blogs. One of my favorite site is The Coyote Blog. I've long forgotten how I came across this blog. The writer never fails to interest me. He seems to be most fair and balanced when it comes to a) global warming; and, b) light rail. He is certainly more fair and balanced than I am on these subjects and that makes him more credible.
I was going to write that regardless, but coincidentally, The Coyote Blog has a great piece on global warming posted today. Amazing. The coincidences. Another must read: a nice link from Megan McArdle. That link will take you to Megan McArdle at Bloomberg. Note: just because I link/post something, it does not mean I have read all of it closely or whether I agree with any or all of it. I often post things because it is a) good writing; and/or, b) provides an interesting perspective.
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The Bakken Meme
Years ago, when I first started the blog, I mentioned that there are three "Bakkens." I forget how I broke the three "Bakkens" down or exactly how I described them, but they were something along this line:
a) the geographical Bakken in North Dakota and how it has changed the economy in the Williston Basin;
b) the Bakken phenomenon worldwide: how technology lessons learned by operators in the Bakken spread to the Permian, the Eagle Ford, and the Niobrara, just to name a few plays; and,
c) the Bakken political/economic handshake -- where the private sector, the public sector, the oil and gas industry, the local and state government, the media -- where "everybody" involved in the process worked in a positive manner to make it happen. Naysayers were pretty much marginalized.
Somehow, those three "Bakkens' morphed into a meme, where the "Bakken" now symbolizes something for everyone around the world.
Just how far has the Bakken meme spread? All the way to India. Look at this: From Bloomberg:
The casualties of the U.S. shale bust are being offered a new frontier thousands of miles away in India to remake their fortunes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is striving to woo investors to develop already discovered but untapped smaller oil and gas fields that hold more than India’s total annual output.
The South Asian nation depends on energy imports, a risk Modi is seeking to tackle as the fastest expansion among major economies turns India into a center of global oil demand growth.
"Entrepreneurs who have capped their wells in Alberta or North Dakota will be looking at this kind of a story with a greater amount of interest, as there’s very little to look forward to in their own fronts,” Atanu Chakraborty, the head of oil regulator the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, said in an interview on Tuesday.
India isn’t fussy about who takes up the challenge -- whether foreign wildcatters or local internet tycoons looking to diversify their investments -- as long as they’re serious and have the money needed, Chakraborty said. The government is offering incentives such as simpler permits, tax sops and freedom from pricing restrictions to overcome the deterrent that low oil prices pose to boosting production.
India’s robust domestic consumption is a buffer against the risk that prices "can fall again or will remain low," Chakraborty, 56, said in the interview in his office in New Delhi.
State-run Oil & Natural Gas Corp. dominates exploration and production in the South Asian nation. Faced with maturing large fields, the company has struggled to stem the drop in India’s oil output in recent years.
The $2 trillion economy imports about 77 percent of the crude and gas it needs. The 67 already-discovered small fields Chakraborty is trying to develop hold about 625 million barrels of oil and gas.
Foreign explorers such as Canada’s Niko Resources Ltd. and Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy Plc grew businesses in India after starting with smaller fields. At the same time, the companies have faced challenges ranging from arbitration spats with the government to tax disputes, underscoring the regulatory risks that some investors fear in India.
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The Intellectual Stammerer
It was just eighteen (18) hours ago when I asked whether this was done on purpose. Now we know. It has been confirmed that this is an example of intellectual stammering. This has been reported on at least since 2011. There are numerous links: simply google "intellectual stammering." You don't even need to add "Obama."
Intellectual stammering is real; it is practiced; it is honed; it is not stuttering. Well done, Mr President.
June 1, 2016
The most well-known individual who was best at this: William F. Buckley.
“Ohio's Obamacare plan has closed up shop, making 13 out of 23 consumer-oriented-and-operated plans to shutter.
InHealth Mutual in Ohio will shut down and will force more than 20,000 people to choose new plans. They will have 60 days to find a new plan. Ohio's insurance regulator said Thursday that it had to take control of the co-op because of major losses.
The Ohio co-op is the first one this year to close. Last year, 12 of the 23 taxpayer-funded plans shut down due to mounting financial losses and a lack of federal funding.
Including InHealth, the federal government has spent $1.3 billion to set up the co-ops, which were created to offer more competition on Obamacare's exchanges.” - Ohio Obamacare co-op collapses, Washington Examiner, 05/26/2016.
By the way, that's why ObamaCare doesn't get many headlines any more: this affects 20,000 people. Twenty-thousand people in a state of 12 million people is 0.17% -- yes, not even one out of 100. About 2 out of a thousand. And the 20,000 that lost insurance have been so jerked around over the past decade, getting jerked around again was to be expected.
The GOP needs to run, not walk, away from ObamaCare. The Dems need to solve this one; they created it.
One wonders if "we" finally saw an economic supernova in the US. A supernova called ObamaCare.
I don't want to push analogy too far, but note that Type II supernova require a star about 8x more massive than our own sun but not "excessively" massive. The reason FDR's social security system did not fail: it was too massive to collapse. ObamaCare collapsed because it was 8x bigger than previous social programs but it was not "big enough, not massive enough" to prevent its own collapse. The Dems will need to make it bigger ... and they can do that by making ObamaCare a) a single-payer program; and, b) making the Federal government the payer of last resort.
Of course, Venezuela has already experienced its supernova.
The big question: is Saudi Arabia next -- something we might have to wait until 2030 to see.
