Tag Archives: US/Global Economics

Texas is big. To frame how big, let me contextualize the normal travels for a rural resident in a few touch points that are universal. The closest large city with a decently large grocery store and a Home Depot are 37 miles one way. When running an “errand” it is easy to tack on 100 miles to the odometer in just a few hours. The parents are 42 miles away in the next city “down the highway” as it were. Sister in law 92 miles, brother 121 miles, Tesla...

RJS Focus on Fracking Summary: Oil price sees highest weekly close in 13 years; natural gas price hit new 13 year high before falling back Oil prices rose for a seventh consecutive week as record high fuel prices showed no signs of dampening demand. After rising 3.3% to $118.87 a barrel last week as China ended their lockdowns and the EU banned 90% of Russian oil imports, the contract price for US light sweet crude for July delivery jumped to...

I do not remember the first time I ran across Treehugger. It was probably at Slate where I was writing in Moneybox and The Best of The Fray. Slate was featuring Treehugger in a series called “Go on an eight-week carbon diet” as written by Meaghan O’Neil in October 2006. Time does fly, doesn’t it? Not everyone gets satisfaction with Treehugger’s offerings as Jack Schafer at Slate points out. But then, maybe he was agitating? You know, stirring the...

RJS: Focus on Fracking Summary: US oil supplies at a 17½ year low with SPR at a 35 year low; refinery utilization highest since 2019, refinery throughput highest in 17 months; gasoline supplies at a 6 month low even with gasoline imports at a 46 week high The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending June 3rd indicated that after a major drop in our...

In this series we explore marketing farm fresh goods in the litany of different ways as a direct consumer edibles farmer. Many types of farms exist within the framework of directly edible, from market gardens, to 100 acre California avocado fields, dairy barns, hen houses, and multiple large monocrop “people food” producers. Direct to Consumer is exactly what it implies. A farmer seeds, grows, reaps or milks, slaughters and packs food and then...

RJS: MarketWatch 666 Summary: Construction Spending Up 0.2% on Higher Prices in April, after March Spending was Revised 0.6% Higher The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending for April (pdf) estimated the month’s seasonally adjusted construction spending was at a $1,744.8 billion annual rate during the month. Up 0.2 percent (±0.8 percent)* from the revised March annual spending rate of $1,740.6 billion, and 12.3 percent (±1.3...

RJS: Focus on Fracking Summary: US oil supplies at a 17 ½ year low with SPR at a 34½ year low; gasoline exports at a 3½ year high; 4 weeks of total oil + product exports at a record high and leads to total oil + products supply at a 13½ year low total oil + product  supplies at a 13½ year low after record exports.. The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the...

Biden Kowtows To Saudi Arabia  Apparently, President Biden will be visiting Riyadh as part of his forthcoming Middle East tour. The report on this coincides with an apparent end to negative comments about the nation’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), whom the CIA has accused of having ordered the execution and chopping up of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It must be admitted that MbS has made some progressive moves, allowing women to drive and...

After all this time, and even with the benefit of history, the causes of World War One (WWI) are still a matter of discussion amongst scholars. For scholars living then to have understood what the causes were, they would have needed to have known an awful lot about all that was going on at the time; which would have been difficult. They would also have needed to cross the philosophical Rubicon and not have allowed long-held beliefs and norms to...

Ways Of Dying  The Economist in each issue has an obituary on its final page. The one for May 21 was of Saotome Katsumoto of Tokyo, Japan, whom I had never heard of who just died at age 90. Apparently, he had been the main person documenting details of the event that involved more people dying at a single time in a single place in world history, although the obit did not specifically point that out.  It did note that the event did involve more...