Drill, Baby Drill

Michelle Steele be full of glee when

From Marketwatch,

“At the Tiber prospect in deepwater Gulf of Mexico, BP (BP)(UK:BP) said it drilled to a total depth of approximately 35,055 feet and found oil.
Transocean (RIG), which leased the rig to BP, said it was the deepest-ever well drilled in the Gulf.
The prospect is 250 miles southeast of Houston under 4,132 feet of water.
Appraisals will be needed to determine the size and commercial potential of the discovery, BP said.
But a spokeswoman for BP likened the discovery to Kaskida, an earlier discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico which had 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent and was drilled to a depth of 32,500 feet.
BP then needs to extract that oil, and usually the firm is able to get 25% to 40% of the oil in place.
At the low end of that estimate, BP’s find could represent 6% of its 12.56 billion barrels of proved reserves at the end of 2008.
BP said it was its second major discovery in the emerging Lower Tertiary play in the Gulf of Mexico, where it currently produces over 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.”

I guess it is time for Drill! Baby! Drill

Drill, Baby Drill

Michelle Steele be full of glee when

From Marketwatch,

“At the Tiber prospect in deepwater Gulf of Mexico, BP (BP)(UK:BP) said it drilled to a total depth of approximately 35,055 feet and found oil.
Transocean (RIG), which leased the rig to BP, said it was the deepest-ever well drilled in the Gulf.
The prospect is 250 miles southeast of Houston under 4,132 feet of water.
Appraisals will be needed to determine the size and commercial potential of the discovery, BP said.
But a spokeswoman for BP likened the discovery to Kaskida, an earlier discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico which had 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent and was drilled to a depth of 32,500 feet.
BP then needs to extract that oil, and usually the firm is able to get 25% to 40% of the oil in place.
At the low end of that estimate, BP’s find could represent 6% of its 12.56 billion barrels of proved reserves at the end of 2008.
BP said it was its second major discovery in the emerging Lower Tertiary play in the Gulf of Mexico, where it currently produces over 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.”

I guess it is time for Drill! Baby! Drill

More Unemployment

I guess things are getting rough on the job front right now. From the AP

“HARRISBURG, Pa. — Thousands of jobless Pennsylvanians are joining the growing ranks of people around the country who are exhausting unemployment benefits, as some experts worry about another blow to a stumbling economy.

Gov. Ed Rendell said 17,800 Pennsylvanians exhausted their jobless benefits in the week that ended Saturday, the first big wave of Pennsylvanians to do so. He urged legislators to pass a bill to extend the benefits.

Around the country, the number of people exhausting their benefits is piling up. By the end of September, more than 500,000 people will exhaust their benefits checks, with the biggest groups in Pennsylvania, California and Texas, according to estimates by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers based in New York City’

How we are going to deal with the crises of unemployment? Is the best solution to this problem is to do nothing and pray to the “invisible hand” of the free market to get things better? Is this sign that our nation is serious decline?

Personally, I do not have answers. The best way to deal with this problem is not to think about tommorow and only for live today. At least that is how I see it.

Air Obama

From WSJ

“
Yet the Obama Justice Department has come out of the blocks trying to scuttle a promising experiment to stabilize the chronically unprofitable U.S. airline sector. The new administration seemingly won’t let companies fail, and won’t let them succeed either.
The airline industry’s self-help solution has been an evolving trio of international alliances, partly blessed with “antitrust immunity” by the U.S. Department of Transportation. One, the Star Alliance led by United and Lufthansa, is currently poaching Continental from a rival alliance, SkyTeam. DOT was set to approve their application last week when Justice belatedly intervened with a 58-page complaint about why the pact should be restructured.
Getty Images
To anyone drilled in the antitrust mindset, Justice’s argument won’t seem outlandish. It frets about reduced competition on this or that international route, and sees little chance of competitive entry by new carriers despite fat profits that presumably would be on offer. It argues, in a fashion typical of antitrust these days, that nonstop flights are a market unto themselves, so connecting flights on the same routes don’t count.
But the real fulcrum is Justice’s insistence, or plea, that DOT should set a high bar for antitrust immunity, because antitrust enforcement has been such a gosh-darn boon to consumers”

Great, does the next thing we need is a government-owned airlines. There are a lot of services that the government performs more effectively than the private sector including healthcare insurance.

However, it is my opinion that the government needs to stay out of the airline industry. We already two airlines that a publically owned airline would never match the efficency which is Jetblue and Southwest.

In my opinion, the government needs to stay out of the airline industry

Results of the Stress Test

The AP reports

“WASHINGTON (AP) — Government exams of the nation’s biggest banks have helped lift a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over the economy.

The so-called stress tests — a key Obama administration effort to boost confidence in the financial system — showed nine of the 19 biggest banks have enough capital to withstand a deeper recession. Ten must raise a total of $75 billion in new capital to withstand possible future losses.

“The publication of the stress tests simply cleared the air of uncertainty,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics. “The results were not scary at all.”

He said it will take a long time for the banks to resume normal lending. But the test results didn’t alter his prediction that economy is headed for a recovery in October or November.

A key indicator of economic health will be released Friday morning, when the government announces how many more jobs were lost in April and how high the unemployment rate rose.

The stress tests have been criticized as a confidence-building exercise whose relatively rosy outcome was inevitable. But the information, which leaked out all week, was enough to cheer investors. They pushed bank stocks higher Wednesday, and rallied again in after-hours trading late Thursday once the results had been released”

If you want a more detailed account of the stress test, please click on this link that will take you to federal reserve website.

GAO Reports — Use of Stimulus Funds And Use of Taxpayer’s Dollars For Auto Bailout

As a citzen of this country, I believe it is our responsiblity to monitor and track how the government spends our tax dollars.  In the era of the internet, our ability to engage in independent oversight of government expenditures has never been better.  One of the agencies that does this for Congress is the GAO and GAO provides a copy of the reports to the public on the Internet.

There is huge fights about the stimlus and use of the auto bailout money in Congress, blogsphere, and especially cable news (Olbermann And Maddow Vs O’Reilly, Hannity, And Beck).   The talking heads are full of spin and even if you typically side with one group (I prefer MSNBC because I endorse liberal causes), one has to skeptical that the talking heads are not always telling you truth.

I was looking for a report that deals with my agency.   Instead, I found two reports that deal with the use of stimulus funds and auto bailout.  Since they are consider to be very sensitive political issues, I decided to share the reports with you.    I included link to the full report and another link that provides one to two page summaries of the reports.

Here are the reports.
GAO-09-580 – As Initial Implementation Unfolds in States and Localities, Continued Attention to Accountability Issues Is Essential”

( Highlights . Full Report)
GAO-09-553 – “Summary  of Government Efforts and Automakers’ Restructuring to Date”

( Highlights,  Full Report)

Feelings of Gloom But Hope is Found in Friends

At Newseum’s website (which is a museum in Washington DC that covers media), is a web page devoted to displaying the front pages from all of the major dailies in the United States. Some of headlines includes Governor: State Stand At Cliff’s Edge or School Pink Slip Hits Home.

The headlines read of times of gloom and doom. One can sit for a few minutes by looking at the headlines and lose all hope. In recovery, to lose all hope is a return back to the nightmare.

Instead, I start to think about the number of friends that I have. My thoughts of Alla and Bender, Matt and Angela, Star, Mike Cavallo, BadDawg, Mike and Kay, Collen and Eric (Dead Meat), Seth and Michelle, Scott and Ginny, and John and Connie filled my mind. Than, I did not feel alone. I felt that I could contact them and just a regular good old conversation would make me for forget the doom and gloom in the news.

One needs to make sober decisions with their money, resources, and time and how it is allocated during these tough times. After that, they are things that we cannot control and that we need just let go. To dwell upon such things is a ticket to feeling sad and who wants to mire themselves in gloom. Try to live in the moment and find serenity with nature, your higher power (a lot of my friends have different belief systems), and friends.

When I dwell on the subject thoughts, worry goes away and I am able to do things that I need to do. Depression and excessive worry drain energy and often prevent one from putting energy into things that are most important. That is why I put little faith in gloom because it do not accomplish anything. I put hope in serenity and it gives me the ability to focus on things that I need to do.

In conclusion, try to find serenity with your life and you will have the energy to cope with the recession. Finding serenity will allow you make to rational decision-making that one needs to make during these hard ties.

The Deficit is High As the Stars

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

Can imagine a trillion dollar debt? The size is this huge. How we are every going repay that? Don’t ask me that question? The solution is insane tax hikes and spending cuts. No Laffer Curve is going to solve this one. The Republicans just cannot give up the Laffler Curve but that is life

Tne End of the Madoff Dynasty

As Madoff sits in a cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, his empire is mere shadow of what it used to be. From being worth $823 Million Dollars to spending the rest of your life in small jail cell, how the mighty have fallen.

And his firm. What is the valuation. Only a mere $500,000. He will be remember as the biggest conman in history. Madoff will always be an example to those who worship the idol of material and the consequences of that. Do not take solace in money. Take solace in the spiritual prinicples of this world whatever your faith.

$500,000 that is it. Mr. Madoff, may God have mercy on your soul. And oh yes, if the Christian God is real, you still can get saved.

It is tired and my brain is fried. More thoughts on the news and life tommorow. And oh yeah, I got the phone assignment at my On the Couch meeting.

AIG