American oil and gas drillers could get some much-needed wind in their sails if the costs of drilling decline as expected in the coming months. Bloomberg's Kevin Crowley reports: While inflation is persisting across the US — albeit at a slower pace — the country’s oil fields are a rare corner of the economy where prices are actually dropping. Drill pipe prices have halved this year, daily rig rates are down by more than 10% and the costs of steel and diesel are also trending lower. The number of active oil rigs has dropped 13% from this year’s peak, indicating there’s a surplus of … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2023
Safety of Income and the Best Days of Your Life
Do you remember not working during the summer? Neither do I. Scooping ice cream at Oxford Creamery for just over three bucks an hour put money in my pocket. It gave me income. Freedom. I could buy a ticket to a movie, a Coke, and Twizzlers for a few hours of work. A pretty good tradeoff. Plus, cleaning up after the baseball teams had come and gone and the mad rush over, we could cook a cheeseburger on the grill, mop the floors and have a coffee frappe for the bike ride home. When I think about your retirement income, I think about bonds. I think about steady work. I think not about what … [Read more...]
Eurozone Edging Closer to CBDC with New Proposal
The Eurozone is edging closer to adopting a central bank digital currency with a new proposal by the European Commission outlining its plans for the digital euro. In a press release, the ECB stated: Proposed legislation establishes framework facilitating the possible introduction of a digital euro that is widely usable and available throughout the euro area ECB also welcomes Commission proposal to protect legal tender status of euro cash Governing Council to decide in autumn whether to move to next phase of digital euro project The European Commission has published today its … [Read more...]
Unexpected Jump in the Number of Used Trucks for Sale
The number of used semi-trucks for sale saw an unexpected and uncharacteristic jump in May. Scott Achelpohl reports for Fleet Owner, writing: Freight transportation is experiencing a widely recognized slowdown and truck and trailer costs to operate are higher, maintenance and repair is only costing fleets more, and even tires are much more expensive. Yet Class 8 used sales were unexpectedly up for May, even as the equipment is markedly older with higher mileage, challenging some observers of the equipment market to make sense of it all. According to the new State of the Industry: U.S. … [Read more...]
Metal Prices Fall as Manufacturing Signals Weakness
Manufacturing surveys in China, Europe, and the United States have recently signaled weakness alongside that of metal prices. Reuters's Andy Home reports: China's manufacturing sector contracted for the third straight month in June. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 49.0, a slight improvement on May but still below the 50-point mark that separates expansion from contraction. The Caixin PMI, which is generated from surveys of smaller, more export-oriented companies, was slightly better at 50.5 but that was down from May levels. Taken together, the PMIs suggest … [Read more...]
Happy Independence Day
In a 3 July 1776, Founding Father John Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail: "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy and Gal Cruising Buzzards Bay
Your Survival Guy and Gal left Newport, RI, for a cruise down Rhode Island Sound Saturday with our destination Mattapoisett, MA, through Buzzards Bay. We took a hard left to swing into Westport, MA, to have some oysters and chowder. Approaching Westport, you have some beautiful coastline with Gooseberry Island off starboard side, then Horseneck Beach State Reservation, and off your port side are hidden ledges sitting like Jaws waiting to grab your hull. You’d never know there was a harbor inside, but once you thread the needle and throttle back, it’s a beautiful, long, winding, narrow, … [Read more...]
LITHIUM RUSH: Automakers Buying Mines to Secure Supply
Automakers are searching the globe looking to secure their own supplies of lithium to build the batteries in their electric cars. Clifford Krauss and Jack Ewing report in The New York Times: Eager to avoid falling further behind Tesla and Chinese car companies, many Western auto executives are bypassing traditional suppliers and committing billions of dollars on deals with lithium mining companies. They are showing up in hard hats and steel-toed boots to scope out mines in places like Chile, Argentina, Quebec and Nevada to secure supplies of a metal that could make or break their companies … [Read more...]
Could Drought Cut Food Price Drops Short?
A recent declining trend in food prices could be threatened by droughts in the American breadbasket. David Uberti reports in The Wall Street Journal: Food costs were finally starting to show signs of easing after the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent prices skyrocketing. Now, a drought across America’s breadbasket is a threat to further relief. The dry spell has spanned the wheat fields of the Great Plains and the Corn Belt in the Upper Midwest, leaving some areas with fractions of their normal rainfall as they head into crucial growing periods for corn and soybeans. The fear … [Read more...]
China’s Slowing Economy Also Pulling Down Its Asian Neighbors
China's economy is weakening, and that weakening is becoming a drag on its neighbors' economies as well. Bloomberg's Claire Jiao reports: Manufacturing across most of Asia deteriorated further in June as a weak Chinese economy sapped demand for the region’s goods. Factory activity remained stuck in contraction in neighboring economies South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, according to manufacturing purchasing managers’ indexes published Monday by S&P Global and au Jibun Bank. Much of Asia’s manufacturing sector had pinned its hopes on a strong Chinese post-pandemic rebound, only to see … [Read more...]
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