"The 40-year oil boom that turned Alaska from a frigid backwater into one of the nation's richest states is over. Not only have petroleum prices crashed, but Alaska's supply of crude is running out. Thirty years ago the state was pumping 2 million barrels a day, a quarter of all US output. But over the past decade, the Prudhoe Bay oil field, once the largest in North America, has started to reach the end of its life. Alaska's output has fallen to 500,000 barrels a day, enough to fill only one-quarter of the capacity of the state’s main economic artery, the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.
Bill "Walker, a 65-year-old former carpenter who won the governor’s office by about 6,000 votes in 2014 as an independent after leaving the Republican Party. * * * Walker is pushing lawmakers to impose an income tax for the first time in 35 years.
"He's also proposing going after the earnings of the $53 billion Alaska Permanent Fund. Established in 1976 by a constitutional amendment, the fund collects a quarter of the state's oil royalties and each year redistributes a portion of the earnings from its investments to Alaskans. Last year every man, woman, and child got a check for $2,072. Walker wants to cut that in half. The whole idea of the Permanent Fund was that it would be used to fund government when the oil fields ran dry. Lawmakers can't touch the principal. But its investment earnings are fair game.
"Alaska is in for tough times. Already, people are leaving. The state lost more residents than any other in 2015.
Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: With oil revenue off, Alaska may be out of savings in two years
(b) Alaska (The North Slope is mostly tundra peppered with small villages. where Prudhoe Bay Oil Field is; The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System led to an oil boom) en.wikipedia.org
(i) Prudhoe Bay Oil Field ("It is the largest oil field in both the United States and in North America, covering 213,543 acres (86,418 ha) and originally containing approximately 25 billion barrels (4.0×109 m3) of oil.[1] The amount of recoverable oil in the field is more than double that of the next largest field in the United States, the East Texas oil field") en.wikipedia.org
(A) Footnote 1 is Prudhoe Bay Fact Sheet. BP, March 2006. (What it means is the statement was true in 2006. I do not know whether it remains true today, and do not intend to find it out.)
(B) Naturally the oil field was named after Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudhoe_Bay,_Alaska
Quote: "Prudhoe Bay was named in 1826 by British explorer Sir John Franklin after his classmate Captain Algernon Percy, Baron Prudhoe. Franklin traveled along the coast [east to west] from the mouth of the Mackenzie River [~ 400 km east of Alaska-Canada border] almost to Point Barrow.
(C) Prudhoe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudhoe
(a town just south of the River Tyne; in the county of Northumberland; about 11 miles (18 km) west of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne)
(ii) Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS; 800 miles or 1,287 km long) privately owned; built after the 1973 oil crisis)
(A) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Alaska_Pipeline_System
(privately owned; built after the 1973 oil crisis; view map)
(B) from Prudhoe Bay "to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in North America." http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/TAPS
(a photo showing the pipe above ground)
(C) "The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish Navy Minister Antonio Valdés y Fernández Bazán." en.wikipedia.org 作者: choi 时间: 5-15-2016 11:54
(2) Dexter Roberts and Jasmine Zhao, Chinese Business Feels The Sting of the Party/ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar ... -sting-of-the-party
("China's entrepreneurs shouldn’t simply make money. They must 'love the motherland, love the people, love the Communist Party, and actively practice socialist core values,' President Xi Jinping told businessmen in March. The latest to discover this is Ren Zhiqiang")
Note: summary underneath the title in print: Entrepreneurs get help from the state—and more threats
"Borgward traces its roots to 1924, when Carl FW Borgward, an engineer, designed and built a motorized carrier cycle called Blitzkarren. By the 1950s it was the third-largest carmaker in Germany and accounted for 60 percent of the country’s auto exports. Its best-known model, the Isabella, was introduced in 1954. * * * The company was forced into liquidation in 1961, after sales declined in the U.S.
"The new Borgward [based in Bremen], reborn in 2008 by the founder's grandson, is building its first model, the BX7 SUV, at a production line in Beiqi Foton's 北汽福田汽车股份有限公司 plant in Beijing.
Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Borgward resurrects a 1960s nameplate for mainland yuppies
(b) Borgward CEO Ulrich "Walker, a former Daimler executive in Asia who earlier led the Smart brand."
(c) "Borgward developed the BX7's engine on its own but is using auto components from Germany's Robert Bosch and Japan's Aisin Seiki * * * 'We only do in-house what can't be outsourced,' Walker says"
(i) Aisin Seiki アイシン精機株式会社 (seiki (n) = 精機)
(ii) ja.wikipedai.org:
1943年 - 陸軍航空本部の命により、航空用発動機量産のため、トヨタ自動車工業と川崎航空機工業の共同出資によって「東海航空工業株式会社」として設立 (my translation: Ordered by 陸軍航空本部 to mass produce aviation engines, Toyota and Kawasaki established a joint enture 東海航空工業株式会社)
"1949年 - 東海飛行機が愛知工業株式会社と社名を変更して航空機部品生産からミシン、自動車部品生産へと転換。 (changed name (Aichi etc, named after what the company was based in: Aichi Prefecture 愛知県 whose capital is Nagoya) to and product lines (sewing machines and auto parts)
"1965年 - 新川工業株式会社と合併してアイシン精機株式会社に社名を変更。(merged with 新川 and took the current name)