In November it reached a 33-year high and was 36% of all US crude oil.
This increase in production, as a result of new technologies, has played a key role in keeping price inflation in check. The Texas oil output over roughly the last three years has completely reversed the previous, gradual 28-year decline in the state’s conventional oil production that took place from 1981 to 2009
(ht Mark Perry)
And yet we are still paying some of the seasonally highest prices of all time, while usage and miles driven declines. It's almost as though- big oil price fixes. But we know that only nutters believe in such conspiracy theories and that price fixing cannot occur in America.
ReplyDeleteAs has always been the case, the cure for high prices is high prices. A lot of ideas sat on the shelf waiting for crude to rise to levels that justified implementation. Once in place, these technologies became cheaper and more efficient still.
ReplyDeleteHydraulic Fracking is a classic example of American short term thinking, because in the long term potable water is is far more critical to individual freedom than the quickly exhausted oil and natural gas produced through the use of this technology. Hydraulic fracking has given our controllers ephemeral profits from the production of oil and gas while greatly expanding their long-term stranglehold on clean, pure water which every individual needs to survive.
ReplyDeleteAmericans are always looking at the here and now, while the people who run this country think in terms of generations. Generational demographics make it very clear that this country is societally and economically a very real example of the walking dead. The American family as an institution is disappearing from the landscape just as the elite planned over 65 years ago. In 10 to 15 years when the drill, drill, drill mania has died this country will be left with dependent generations under the boot of the state, and fracking will have only hastened the process. How does that crude taste now?
"The American family as an institution is disappearing from the landscape just as the elite planned over 65 years ago"
DeletePlanned? Please. Don't be so paranoid. It's just the simple outcome of special interest groups buying politicians in The Imperial City made possible by income and payroll taxes. It's all a "how do I get elected and/or reelected" game. I don't buy the paranoid BS that all of this was "planned".
"How does that crude taste now?"
Just fine. Something else will replace it just like the car replaced the horse and buggy. Who knows, by then maybe solar power or some other technology will be viable to replace it. No need for the "everything has been planned since ancient Sumeria" silliness.
I don't agree. Right now we need the oil and I would rather pay three dollars a gallon or less, than six dollars or more like they do in Europe. As far as pure fresh drinking water goes, I think our technology can make it from ocean water. And, it could be cheaper than city water is now if the state stays out of it.
DeleteWell I am afraid you both seriously underestimate the power that demographics can provide a well informed individual. I studied demographics in depth 27 years ago and it let me anticipate the housing crash of 2007. I started studying the potential damage that was going to take place well before January, 2003, because I was one of the few that understood demographics, MERS, and tranches. I timed my exit from the housing market beautifully in May, 2006 while you were both thinking people like me were paranoid.
DeleteI have a massive demographic/economic database (4,800 Charts) that I built over a period of 3 years that allows me to see trends decades before either of you sadly misinformed statists could ever hope to awaken to what happened around you. As an example 2006 to 2008 was the peak of baby boomer household net worth, the peak of household income, the peak of housing prices, and the start of boomer cut backs as they headed into their sold called golden years. The wealth of 3 generations was in play, and Catherine Austin Fitts estimates $40 trillion dollars were looted by the banks in this exact period of time. I knew about this specific period of time decades ago because I don't sit on my ass and watch sports, I study statistics. I hate being blindsided by something that could be foreseen.
If you want to have a clue as too how far behind the curve you are read Aldous Huxley's letter to George Orwell in October, 1949, and then tell me the elite did not know what was coming. The federal government and private institutions have demographic databases 40 to 60 years ahead of what the general population thinks is possible. But the fact of the matter is you have to dig really hard to find the right data, and you have to love graphs to be good at it. I graph at my desk, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I hope you two don't believe the fairy tales the CNBC crew keeps telling their audience about a massive pent up demand by Millennials who will save the housing market. The housing market is in the process of starting its long dive into the abyss, and the Federal Reserve and the TBTF banks don't have a prayer of stopping the impending crash. The recent run up in prices was a creation of the Federal Reserve and what not based in demographic reality, and reality is winding up to crush the housing market with a sledge hammer.
Finally, I love it when people who have not studied the hideous mendacity of the Federal Government for over 46 years, as I have, call those of us who have always seen it for what it is, paranoid. You call people paranoid because it is easier than standing alone outside the current statist paradigm.
Please provide evidence that hydraulic fracturing is a scheme to deny people access to potable water.
DeleteThis actually makes one wonder how much is due to new technology and how much is due to a sharp rise in the money supply. Indeed many corporate balance sheets are bloated, so if asset prices look good, then oil companies are going to oversupply or churn out as much as possible to reek a plethora of profits. It reminds me of the article Jesus Huerta de Soto wrote for Mises on Environmentalism and Austrian Business Cycle Theory.
ReplyDeleteSee here: http://mises.org/daily/5837/Some-Additional-Reflections-on-the-Economic-Crisis-and-the-Theory-of-the-Cycle
One thing to remember is that recently shale production is at similar heights to that of the 70s when the US got off the gold standard. It makes one think about what's really going on here.
Quote: "In November it reached a 33-year high and was 36% of all US crude oil."
ReplyDeleteRough analysis: If 2.8 MM barrels/ day is 36% of production then production is about 8 MM barrels/day.
That is less than 1/2 of the 19 MM barrels/day that we consume.
Conclusion: Although the 3X increase in production is impressive, the US energy problem is as acute as ever and will grow worse as time passes. Fracking does increase production but it's a drop in the bucket of what is needed.