Sunday, February 28, 2010

Gretchen Morgenson earns her Pulitzer

I am generally not the biggest fan of Gretchen Morgenson, the NY Times finance and economics reporter, nor am I her biggest detractor.  Her piece today on the credit default swaps market and the role played in it by the too big to fail banks was financial journalism at its near best:  clear, concise, well-argued: deposit-taking financial institutions with taxpayer backing shouldn't be trading in underregulated over the counter markets.  Much better than the prolix hand-waving we've been seeing in the last year or so. 

Richard Thaler's piece on auctioning off TV broadcast bandwidth in the same business section was equally compelling.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Michael Pollan on anthropocentricity, permaculture

 Phenomenal talk.  Amazing he can cover this much in less than 20 minutes.  I must buy more of his books.

Friday, February 26, 2010

A good chart

From Energy Information Administration, a Federal Agency funded by the "discretionary budget" which is being frozen so that politicians won't have to address the hard issues of underfunded entitlements based on longevity assumptions which have long since been rendered obsolete.  This one chart speaks volumes about the politics and reality of energy.

Table R2.  Energy Consumption by Source and Total Consumption per Capita, Ranked by State, 2007 

Rank
Coal Natural Gas a Petroleum b Retail Electricity Sales Total Consumption per Capita
State Trillion Btu State Trillion Btu State Trillion Btu State Trillion Btu State Million Btu
    1
   Texas    1,609.1    Texas    3,641.4    Texas    5,886.9    Texas    1,173.1    Alaska    1,062.3
    2
   Indiana    1,574.5    California    2,440.4    California    3,946.3    California      901.6    Wyoming      948.6
    3
   Pennsylvania    1,490.7    Louisiana    1,423.1    Florida    1,983.5    Florida      788.5    Louisiana      861.2
    4
   Ohio    1,461.7    New York    1,218.9    New York    1,633.4    Ohio      552.0    North Dakota      671.1
    5
   Illinois    1,090.3    Illinois      979.3    Louisiana    1,599.9    Pennsylvania      517.2    Texas      496.3
    6
   Kentucky    1,020.4    Florida      950.3    Pennsylvania    1,455.6    New York      505.6    Montana      483.1
    7
   West Virginia      983.0    Michigan      847.8    Illinois    1,418.1    Illinois      498.3    Kentucky      477.5
    8
   Georgia      934.7    Ohio      836.3    New Jersey    1,373.3    Georgia      469.0    West Virginia      469.9
    9
   Alabama      888.4    Pennsylvania      781.7    Ohio    1,357.0    North Carolina      450.0    Alabama      460.8
   10
   North Carolina      827.8    Oklahoma      690.6    Georgia    1,100.2    Virginia      380.7    Indiana      458.4
   11
   Missouri      802.4    New Jersey      640.7    Virginia    1,016.6    Indiana      373.3    Oklahoma      445.8
   12
   Michigan      799.9    Indiana      548.1    Michigan      987.3    Michigan      372.9    Mississippi      424.3
   13
   Florida      720.8    Colorado      515.9    North Carolina      970.8    Tennessee      364.1    Iowa      414.0
   14
   Tennessee      672.4    Georgia      453.9    Indiana      877.7    Kentucky      315.3    Kansas      409.1
   15
   Wyoming      494.8    Alabama      431.4    Washington      846.8    Alabama      313.3    Arkansas      406.1
   16
   Wisconsin      464.9    Massachusetts      417.3    Tennessee      827.1    Washington      292.6    Nebraska      391.6
   17
   Iowa      464.4    Wisconsin      403.9    Missouri      758.9    Missouri      291.8    South Carolina      384.2
   18
   Virginia      457.9    Arizona      402.1    Kentucky      747.4    South Carolina      279.6    Tennessee      379.0
   19
   South Carolina      444.0    Minnesota      396.5    Minnesota      706.2    New Jersey      279.6    South Dakota      367.2
   20
   Arizona      438.5    Mississippi      374.9    Massachusetts      684.6    Louisiana      271.5    New Mexico      361.8
   21
   North Dakota      420.1    Alaska      371.8    Alabama      626.4    Arizona      263.4    Minnesota      361.7
   22
   Kansas      396.3    Virginia      332.7    Wisconsin      619.5    Wisconsin      243.3    Idaho      354.0
   23
   Utah      391.3    Kansas      291.6    Arizona      595.4    Minnesota      232.8    Ohio      352.8
   24
   Colorado      388.5    Washington      279.7    Oklahoma      578.0    Maryland      223.1    Delaware      350.4
   25
   Oklahoma      373.2    Missouri      277.6    South Carolina      576.5    Massachusetts      195.0    Maine      346.3
   26
   Minnesota      366.0    Nevada      263.6    Maryland      557.3    Oklahoma      188.3    Virginia      339.1
   27
   Maryland      327.8    Iowa      261.9    Colorado      525.4    Colorado      175.0    Missouri      334.1
   28
   New Mexico      296.1    Oregon      258.2    Mississippi      470.9    Oregon      166.3    Wisconsin      329.8
   29
   Arkansas      275.0    North Carolina      245.2    Iowa      441.6    Mississippi      164.3    Georgia      329.0
   30
   New York      257.5    New Mexico      240.3    Kansas      424.5    Arkansas      160.6    Pennsylvania      322.6
   31
   Louisiana      249.8    Kentucky      236.0    Connecticut      396.8    Iowa      154.5    Washington      320.5
   32
   Nebraska      216.8    Utah      232.2    Arkansas      386.9    Kansas      137.0    District of Columbia      318.5
   33
   Montana      202.5    Tennessee      229.7    Oregon      384.7    Nevada      121.6    New Jersey      317.1
   34
   Mississippi      184.9    Arkansas      228.0    Alaska      324.1    West Virginia      116.6    Illinois      315.2
   35
   Massachusetts      120.1    Maryland      208.5    Hawaii      306.3    Connecticut      116.4    Colorado      305.5
   36
   New Jersey      111.8    Connecticut      184.1    Utah      305.6    Nebraska       96.4    Nevada      304.3
   37
   Washington       95.7    South Carolina      180.3    Nevada      292.6    Utah       94.8    Utah      301.8
   38
   Nevada       82.9    Nebraska      146.4    West Virginia      288.7    Idaho       81.1    Michigan      301.2
   39
   California       66.4    West Virginia      122.6    New Mexico      284.8    New Mexico       76.0    North Carolina      298.6
   40
   Delaware       63.8    Wyoming      117.6    Maine      235.6    Wyoming       53.0    Oregon      296.7
   41
   Oregon       45.3    Rhode Island       90.8    Nebraska      235.1    Montana       53.0    Hawaii      269.1
   42
   New Hampshire       44.9    Idaho       83.9    Montana      210.6    District of Columbia       41.3    Maryland      265.0
   43
   Connecticut       39.9    Montana       75.0    Wyoming      176.2    North Dakota       40.6    Vermont      261.2
   44
   South Dakota       33.2    New Hampshire       64.6    New Hampshire      169.6    Delaware       40.5    Florida      252.9
   45
   Hawaii       19.1    North Dakota       63.0    Idaho      165.8    Maine       40.5    Connecticut      249.5
   46
   Alaska       13.0    South Dakota       54.1    North Dakota      142.7    New Hampshire       38.3    Arizona      248.3
   47
   Idaho       10.2    Delaware       49.8    Delaware      135.8    South Dakota       36.2    New Hampshire      239.5
   48
   Maine        6.6    Maine       47.9    South Dakota      121.3    Hawaii       36.1    Massachusetts      234.2
   49
   District of Columbia        0.5    District of Columbia       33.9    Rhode Island       91.5    Rhode Island       27.3    California      233.4
   50
   Rhode Island        (s)    Vermont        8.9    Vermont       87.5    Alaska       21.6    New York      209.2
   51
   Vermont        (s)    Hawaii        3.0    District of Columbia       22.5    Vermont       20.0    Rhode Island      206.6
   United States   22,739.9    United States   23,677.6    United States   40,358.1    United States   12,844.8    United States      336.8
aIncludes supplemental gaseous fuels.
bIncludes fuel ethanol blended into motor gasoline.
(s) = Value less than 0.05 trillion Btu.
Web Page:  All data available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/states/_seds.html under “Complete Data Files."
Sources:  Data sources, estimation procedures, and assumptions are described in the Technical Notes.