Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Oil at 10-year Low, SPR at 19-Year low, Total oil & products supply at 7 1/2-year low

Oil supplies at a 10 year low;  SPR at a 19 year low, total oil & products supplies at 7 1/2 year low; Omicron hit to demand leads to largest 5 week increase of gasoline inventories in 32 years RJS: The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA, Focus on Fracking US […]

Construction Spend Up .2%, Prior Months Revised Higher

RJS @ MarketWatch 666, Construction Spending Rose 0.2% in December after Prior Months Were Revised Higher The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending for December (pdf) estimated that the month’s seasonally adjusted construction spending would work out to $1,639.9 billion annually if extrapolated over an entire year, which was 0.2 percent (± 0.8 percent)* above the revised November estimate […]

The Trident that Killed Aphrodite: Communism, Corruption, and Conscience

Green groves feed the townspeople crafting their wares for the benefit of an enlightened populace, the amber fields of grain are milled for bread for the troops to keep our sovereign democracy intact. The greatest of civilizations are measured by the strength of their army, the complexity of the structures that they construct, yet history […]

A Tale of Two Freezes, One Year On

A quick note on the current state of affairs within the current Texas freeze, and the years worth of political nonsense that is the Texas Legislature. The fine folks over at Space City Weather, do a great job of keeping the Houston metro area informed of weather conditions, but their two leads, Eric and Matt […]

Oil Prices 7-year High, Natural Gas 14-Year High, Natural Gas Supply Sees Largest Draw

Oil prices hit 7 year high, natural gas hits 14 year high on largest one day price jump on record; natural gas supplies see largest draw this winter, Focus on Fracking, RJS Oil prices rose for a sixth straight week and eclipsed the 7 year high hit last week on heightened tension over Ukraine, tight […]

Latest EIA US Oil Supply and Disposition Data

Total supplies of oil & products at 7 1/2 year low even after largest 4 week build of gasoline stocks in 32 years SPR inventories are at a new 19 year low; gasoline inventories are up most in any 4 week period since Jan 1990 as gasoline demand, ex worst Covid drops, are at a 10 year low; imports of gasoline are at a […]

I Got Caught Up in America’s Absurd Health Care System

Lambert at Naked Capitalism has an interesting article up as taken from KHN entitled “I Write About America’s Absurd Health Care System. Then I Got Caught Up in It” as detailed by Bram Sable-Smith. As taken from the KHN article, Bram describes the beginnings of his dilemma of getting Insulin: “I’d been waiting since September […]

Fourth Quarter GDP (2021) – Strongest Year in Decades

WSJ reports Stocks rose broadly Thursday morning after the GDP report, but they retreated later in the day, with the Nasdaq falling 1.4%, the S&P 500 dropping 0.54%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 0.02%. Thursday’s report contained warning signs. Most of the growth owed to companies’ restocking rather than people and firms buying […]

Can Bill Gates bring nuclear power back to the US?

Usually, discussions of decarbonizing energy production involve solar, wind, tidal and geothermal. But nuclear power generation doesn’t generate greenhouse gas (though the large amount of concrete in conventional nuclear power plants does). Nuclear power generation has a bad name after Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. While there is debate about whether the Three Mile […]