text:
If you have been "watching" you will have noticed a fairly sharp deceleration in global economic activity since the middle of 2014. World trade volume growth in particular has been heading into recession type territory:
Compromised by its many biases the Brondesbury report completely misses the point about fees!
From one critical perspective this report appears to blame consumers of advice for the outcomes of a business model compromised by transaction remuneration. Little is said of the inadequacies of suitability standards and their regulation or of the failings of investment processes focussed on the transaction. Lacking such balance the report appears to advocate for the transaction model and thus is pared of its credibility!
If you had stopped reading the Brondesbury report into Mutual Fund Fees at the first summary conclusion on page 6, you might have walked away thinking the report was in favour of fees for the right reasons:
"Evidence on the impact of compensation is conclusive enough to justify the development of new compensation policies."
If you had read on you should be left in some doubt as to how much of a marginal benefit a move to fees would have on investor outcomes. The report appears to build an argument that suggests investor behavioural biases are the most important vitiating impact on outcomes and that advisors are merely responding to their transaction requests.
The Brondesbury Report & Cultural Bias in the Regulation of Canadian Retail Financial Services…
I am going to delve into the Brondesbury report shortly, but first we need to step back and look at the frame we are in, because neither the Brondesbury report nor the CSA have fully explained this.
The CSA have unfortunately addressed mutual fund fee issues separately from the wider problems in the Canadian financial services industry and, most notably, separate from that of best interest standards. There may well be a reason for this!
Aside from the investment counselling/discretionary client portfolio management segment of the industry, whose standards and responsibilities appear, to all intents and purposes, to be ignored as valid reference points in current deliberation, the frame we are looking at is the one that holds the advisory segment.
The advisory segment is still regulated on a transaction by transaction basis with responsibility for the transaction effectively lodged with the individual investor. This is a simple parameter to parameter model that aligns risk preferences and investment objectives, adjusted for some nebulous assessment of investment experience (often arbitrarily assigned), to a product recommendation. The product recommendation passes through the parameters. In the Securities Act, for instance, the provision of a transaction recommendation within an advisory registration capacity is not technically considered to be advice.
The KYC is not a portfolio/optimisation process. In fact, if you were to hand a KYC to an investment professional they would have to bypass it to a more sophisticated investment process to construct, plan and manage an asset allocation and security selection that matched a given investor's risk preferences/asset liability profile.
The current culture assumes that investors come with requests on a transaction by transaction basis, that the KYC process is effective and sufficient and because of its simplicity is therefore simply understood. An investor in this frame should be able to own the transaction with the advisor only responsible for the product advice and not the management, or the construction or the planning. If we refer to the careful delineation in the Securities Act, the investor is not actually being advised.
In this frame "the culture" assumes that it is the investor's own behavioural biases that drive mis-selling and that the advisor must accommodate these biases or risk losing business: I phrase this with reference to comments that I will, in a later post, draw from the Brondesbury report.
I have a number of issues with this framing of the KYC process and so, it would seem, did the OSC way back in the late 1990s and the early 2000s –note the FAIR DEALING MODEL and earlier Financial Planning Project initiatives:
In 1999, the Canadian Securities Administrators committee on financial planning proficiency standards identified conflicts of interest in financial planning advice as a more significant concern than representatives' proficiency. The CSA committee undertook to pursue this area as the second phase of the Financial Planning Project. Around the same time, OSC Chair David Brown determined that changes in the social and economic environment, and in the business structures and objectives of the securities industry, warranted a fundamental re-examination of the regulations governing the delivery of financial advice to retail investors. He recognized that our regulations are still product-based, as they have been for decades, even though the industry has moved to an advice based business model. In early 2000, the OSC launched the committee that has led to this Concept Paper.
The promise of service has long since exceeded that of the simple transaction. It has long since extended to the provision of advice that relates to overall financial needs and financial assets. The process needed to manage these needs and assets is more sophisticated/complex than that provided by the KYC parameter model.
Today the KYC remains as the barometer of the suitability of product advice and the assessment of the suitability of advice. In order to deliver the promises that the industry is effectively making the investor today you would need to move your focus of attention to a more complex and integrated service process. In truth investors should be paying for the process and not the transaction. Unfortunately the industry remains mired in a culture that rewards the transaction and not the process, and hence focus has remained on the transaction and transaction remuneration.
If we are to deliver on the service promises being made we need to develop our processes and thereby raise our standards of advice. By removing remuneration from the transaction and aligning it to the process, i.e. a fee for service process and advice, we change the industry from one focussed on transactions delivered by a rudimentary process to one focussed on advice delivered by modern technology and knowledge that better matches the promise. At the moment advisors can effectively promise best interests yet remain regulated on the transaction. This risks a disconnect between the processes needed to deliver the wider promise and those needed to satisfy minimum standards.
The Brondesbury report, along with many others, is stuck in the transaction mindset:
It believes in a world where investors initiate and are able take control of their investment decisions, where the KYC is simple and effective in delivering investment solutions, where advisors are not promising a higher standard of advice and are hostage to investor behavioural biases and where advisors are not responsible for educating the investor over their process and disciplines. It believes in a world where the cost to the investor of delivering the transaction solution is of equivalent value to the investor and where there is no other promise than the transaction and no other alternative spectrum of advice. The report ignores the fact that today's promises exceed the boundaries of KYC suitability and require more advanced processes that naturally differ from those required to deliver stand alone product recommendations.
The Brondesbury report is looking at the problem through the rear view mirror, replete with longstanding cultural biases that have impeded the development not only of higher professional standards but more efficient and cost effective wealth management solutions. This is a very complex area. I will address some of the wider issues as I explore the Brondesbury report in subsequent posts.
I discuss issues with the current parameter to parameter suitability model in my submission to the CSA on Best Interest Standards in Appendix A. Also in this document are a number of excerpts from many of my blogs on best interests and the KYC process.
Also worth reading is "Fiduciary Obligations of Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers" by Arthur B Laby.
Are Canadian regulators ring fencing consumer investing behavioural biases in favour of transaction returns?
"we suspect that much of what we see as impact of compensation is just investors failing to make rational decisions." P53 of the Brondesbury Report on Mutual Fund Fees.
I am in the midst of reviewing the CSA commissioned Brondesbury Report on Mutual Fund Fees and am ploughing through the reference material which supposedly underpins its conclusions. Amongst the many nuggets I have unearthed is the following taken from "Investors' Optimism: A Hidden Source of High Markups in the Mutual Fund Industry" :
Previous works have identified investors' optimism bias towards equities issued in their domestic market. In particular, academic research on mutual funds has focused on investor's lack of financial literacy. …These empirical findings of investor's deviation from rationality are in line with our model's emphasis on investor's limited financial knowledge of the mutual fund industry.
Investors' optimism bias can be closely related to their lack of knowledge of the fund market, leading them to choose sub-optimal benchmarks such as bank savings instead of low-cost index funds or ETFs. Besides, investors' optimism bias is probably influenced and reinforced by the marketing practices of mutual funds, which promote the sale of fund shares.
The reference to sub-optimal benchmarks is both noteworthy and ironic because both the new Point of Sale disclosure documentation for mutual funds and the performance reporting requirements laid down in the CRM2 lack mandated performance benchmarks.
Interestingly the Canadian Securities Administrators had earlier proposed a GIC or cash based benchmark for Point of Sale mutual fund disclosure documentation, but baulked at the last minute for a number of reasons.
So why were Canadian regulators looking to implement "sub optimal benchmarks"? Were they ring fencing consumer behavioural biases in the interests of transaction remuneration or were they themselves acting in ignorance? We may never know but the point is an interesting one and much more so given the deeper contextual focus in the Brondesbury report on investor behavioural biases (chapter 5):
"Behavioral biases of investors are not easy to overcome. Behavioral biases affect advisor behaviour (just as advisors affect investor behaviour), investor choices of investment, and ultimately, investor outcomes"
"Time is a precious commodity to most advisors. There is only so much time an advisor can afford to spend to overcome the behavioral biases of investors, regardless of how they are compensated"
"Investor behaviour biases lead to sub-optimal returns and these biases can be confused with compensation impacts"
Behavioral biases of investors are not easy to overcome and they are a key factor in sub-optimal returns on investment. This poses a real limitation of the conclusions we can draw from the research literature, when we look solely at clients of commission-based advisors.
If there is no comparison between different forms of compensation, one can easily be misled into believing that sub-optimal behaviour is the result of the advisor's recommendations and not, at least in part, the behavior and attitudes of the investor.
There are two issues related to behavioral biases that must be mentioned here. The first is the question of who is responsible for overcoming the behavioral biases of individual investors. While helping clients to do so may be something that a top-notch advisor will choose to do, we are not aware of any rule or principle that points to de-biasing as an advisor or a firm responsibility, regardless of compensation scheme unless a failure to do so impacts 'investment suitability' in some way.
"we suspect that much of what we see as impact of compensation is just investors failing to make rational decisions." P53 of the Brondesbury Report on Mutual Fund Fees.
This quick post introduces some of my concerns with the Brondesbury report and my belief that many of its conclusions and analysis remain mired in a transaction mindset that continues to beset regulation of advice in Canada. Regulators and, it would seem, some esteemed others appear mired in a perplexing behavioural bias towards "what does and does not represent investment advice".
How far can we defer the next asset price crisis? Depends on how fat the tail of the distribution is!
I have blogged on fundamental liquidity issues recently and one point that I want to bring out is that the greater the divergence between asset values and GDP and the greater the divergence between broad MS growth and GDP growth, especially in slower growth frames, the "fatter the tail of the distribution".
Volatility at one level is a measure of the sensitivity of an asset's price to new information, shocks to the system/de facto changes in the energy of the system. It reflects changes in demand flows for assets which can reflect changes in risk preferences and risk/return expectations. In a general equilibrium volatility is meant to be a static physical characteristic reflecting the fundamental nature of the asset and its relationships, but we do not currently have general equilibrium relationships and volatility is not a stable measure of anything.
Essentially when we have excess asset focussed money supply growth (EAFMS) amidst a slowing growth frame the "accumulated liquidity in" decisions exceed the "present value of future liquidity out" (PVLO) decisions. In a sense liquidity (at its heart a function of the relationship between asset allocation decisions and C/S/I/P decisions) becomes more sensitive to short term changes in demand flows and risk/return expectations, risk preferences and other factors. As the ratio of EAFMS to PVLO rises so does the natural volatility of the system.
Why the tail? Why not volatility at 1 standard deviation? During periods of excess monetary flows demand changes are not in totality covariance issues (ie. relative attractiveness of one asset to another) but absolute flows that suppress relative price reaction. In other words we see a fall in volatility throughout most of the distribution. All the while the system due to EAFMS/PVLO imbalances becomes more sensitive to changes in flows, preferences, expectations and shocks.
Given that the system because of its imbalances becomes more sensitive to small changes in any one factor, the bigger the divergence noted in paragraph A the greater the probability of an extreme risk event. The greater the accumulated liquidity in to PVLO the larger the tail: the risk event and its probability increase.
In reality, from a given point on, we can effectively discount the rest of the distribution in any analysis as a dynamically widening tail is merely a statistical constraint on the way we should be viewing risk. We are only exposed to the wider risk distribution if forces suppressing risk remain influential.
A Foray into the Fundamentals of Austerity in Anticipation of the Outcome.
A recent IMF report pointed out some supposed vast amounts of room available for the world's economies to step up government borrowing to finance consumption, investment and production decisions. Oddly the report appeared to ignore other forms of debt and material deterioration in key areas of the economic frame.
When the crisis broke back in 2007 it was clear to me that monetary and fiscal policy would likely need to go for broke to support economic growth and employment at a time of collapsing asset values, debt defaults and a world wide retrenchment in expenditure of all kinds. As it happened a great deal of that support went into asset prices and financial institutions.
But some years after the crisis, after a slow and drawn out recovery with interest rates locked to the floor, economies still appear to be borderline reliant on debt financed government expenditure. Any attempt to reduce borrowing, to either raise taxes or cut expenditure to pay back debt would be considered by many to have an adversely negative impact on economic growth, especially at such low growth rates.
On the question of market liquidity and the liquidity time bomb.
In a recent tweet I made the comment "Not a paradox: ratio of MS to assets & of asset prices to GDP, and hence to GDP functions C/I/S/P out of synch".
Given the sensitivity of markets to even small changes in demand should anyone stand ready to provide liquidity at the onset of the tail of a distribution?
If a liquidity decision eventually exits, then there is a maximum amount of divergence which any given financial system can accommodate before the dynamics of the reverse flow overwhelm any attempt to keep it afloat. We must bear this in mind.
A recent article by Nouriel Roubini "The Liquidity Time Bomb", to which the tweet responded, commented on the apparent paradox between vast amounts of financial stimulus and monetary expansion alongside a decline in market liquidity for assets.
Why do we need liquidity in the market place? There are a variety of fundamental economic reasons. Entities wishing to purchase assets (from savings out of income or from loans) in either new/existing issues, entities who may be dissaving and wish to sell assets in exchange for cash for either consumption (debt repayment) or to purchase higher yielding assets, businesses that wish to raise capital and other entities like governments that wish to borrow. That is markets function as an important medium for saving, consumption, investment and production decisions…they facilitate the allocation, pricing, accumulation (and the reverse) and transfer of capital ownership rights.
In the context of interest rate decisions you have to ask yourself just what are we waiting for?
I have seen that the IMF has asked the Fed to defer interest rate increases until we see clear signs of wage increases and inflationary pressure.
The request IMO is both scary and rationale given that so much of today's National Income Accounting Identity (output=C+I+X-M) relies on factors that lie outside of its operation. I speak of new bank generated loan growth given that income growth/distribution and investment growth still appear to be weak in the scheme of things..i.e. C+I the drivers.
The last time the FRB delayed interest rate increases we had a debt financed consumption boom in the US followed by IR increases and a de facto financial collapse. By raising rates we likely restrict one of the few modes of generating consumption growth in the US (note auto loans) and many other countries. We also likely raise the impact of existing debt burdens on what are to date still historically low rates of income/wage growth.
As such you have to ask yourself just what are we waiting for? Well we need higher income growth, but not just higher income growth: we need a more equitable and fair distribution so that economic growth itself becomes less reliant on debt and low interest rates, and less exposed to the scary divergence of asset values.
But the world is also changing in ways that question whether we can effectively outwait the inevitable: populations are aging and declining. Areas where the frame can still expand in consumption terms, areas such as China, may be heading into their own period of slow growth and low IR debt support.
Importantly will the status quo submit to a reconfiguration of the pie and can the world assume a less debt dependent economic raison d'etre?
So yes, the rationale to defer interest rate rises is both scary and realistic, but it fails to answer important questions: what are we waiting for, how long can we wait, and are our hopes realistic?
This is just a quick 3 minute post, but the issues are critical!
US Manufacturing Orders
After a strong mid 2014 new orders had fallen heavily with nominal order data especially hard hit. After an initial slide the trend seems to be levelling out, but levelling out is not what the economy needs.
Long term, the order profile is flat if we adjust for prices – note I have adjusted for producer prices not order prices, although over time I expect little difference.
Annual growth rates have taken a punch to the gut, but if we adjust for monthly variance and producer prices we find that the downturn is less marked, although not necessarily insignificant:
What I do find interesting, and which backs up my thoughts re last summer's surge in activity, is the fact that the rise in activity towards the middle of last year is more or less reflected in the downturn in the early part of this year. This pattern comes about after adjusting for PPI and basing % changes on rolling 6 month average data to arrive at a better fix of actual capacity and order flow:
Motor vehicles and parts seems to be the notable exception, but I do have concerns over debt financing and weak income growth.
World Trade
Some charts and brief comments I forgot to post:
Growth in world trade volumes has fallen off significantly since summer 2014:
Interestingly US trade data shows a tail off in US auto exports and a rise in Auto imports. Imports rose strongly in March and fell back in April (opposite for exports), although much of this has been ascribed to the impact of West Coast port strike issues.
Comments on "Developments in credit risk management across sectors"
A recent BIS report on "Developments in credit risk management across sectors:" raised some interesting points regarding the stability of the financial system. What I found interesting was the increasing use of collateral agreements and in particular higher quality/more liquid assets. If the financial system is exposed to a risk event there is a risk that this collateralisation of higher quality assets could increase the correlation of these assets to the risk event and may well end up drawing liquidity from other areas. Likewise as risk in the system increases the need to hedge and hence post collateral may further infect expected price reactions.
Is Private Investment Expenditure in the US really looking strong?
Is investment expenditure in the US really looking strong? I picked up some tweets on this the other day which stated that it was indeed.
The above graph shows domestic investment of US private business net of capital depreciation. A couple of points should strike you immediately: one nominal expenditure peaked back in the late 1990s; two, a lot of the retracement (or the pluck as Friedman might have said) is a consequence of the unprecedented decline seen during the dark days of 2009.
Overtaxing the rich: A cautionary tale
We need to look at increasing inequality as an unfair tax on social and economic stability. And so, my brief thoughts on this Tim Cestnick article in the Globe & Mail;
At a very simple level the economy spends what it earns (Output=expenditure=C+I=C+S, where S is income spent but not consumed). In reality the picture is somewhat different in that we have monetary loan expansion that over time has served to increase the demand/expenditure for goods/services and investment expenditure.
Economic growth is the growth of expenditure whether it be consumption or investment goods. If we start to allocate increasing amounts of income towards a very small % of the population what we end up doing is to constrain the ability of the economy to grow.
For one lower income growth limits borrowing ability (something which had sustained GDP growth) and it may retroactively impact the ability to repay previous loans based on lower ex post income growth.
Greater allocation of income to one small segment of society also risks a higher allocation of money towards assets and away from consumption. Increasing income inequality results in lower recycling of income into demand, and as the growth rate of demand slows so does the growth rate of investment.
Importantly future flows determine the valuation of assets, so rising inequality amidst weaker GDP growth poses risks to assets prices. The significance of this circularity has been lost on the very wealthy in a time when monetary policy has been outwardly in favour of asset price support in a weakening growth environment.
If we had less income inequality then tax rates would also likely be lower and we may also have a smaller state and a more outwardly capitalist economy. The need for higher tax rates is partly due to structural imbalances like income inequality: think of two monkeys swinging through the trees, one with all its limbs and the other with only one arm.
Clearly we need incentives for people to take risks with capital, but we also need to make sure that the system has the necessary circularity of flow. The income of the very wealthy is dependent on the expenditure of all and the valuation of their assets too. This is something many have lost sight of: today's high market valuations relative to historical benchmarks (note the Shiller CAPE) are assumed by some to reflect a different set of dynamics supporting valuation whereas many of the growth engines of the past are collapsing.
At a time when there are so many negative forces impacting the stability of the economy a more efficient, though still incentivised, distribution of income would go a long way to alleviating economic and geo-politic stress. Otherwise we risk increasing social instability and greater threat to income and wealth.
The post World War II years are a very short space in time and certainly not long enough to assume that the having your cake and eat it too mentality is a natural economic dynamic. In reality increasing income inequality is a de facto tax on economic and social stability in that shifting income and wealth from one set of people to another creates dangerous imbalances and inefficiencies. The present need to raise taxes is an ex post not an ex ante action.
"Marketplace lenders step out of the shadows in Canada — should we be worried?"
Brief thoughts re a recent Barbara Schechter article: Marketplace lenders step out of the shadows in Canada — should we be worried?
I tweeted on this. Some additional comments. Peer to peer lending is different from bank lending in that it does not result in an increase in money supply growth. It may result in an increase in velocity of money supply, something which has been dropping of late in many economies as a result of quantitative easing and a number of other dynamics. It should also increase the efficiency of the intermediation system by offering lower interest rates and quicker access to credit to many borrowers. There are some cons: one of which is that it will increase the liquidity risks in the system in the event of an economic downturn/ financial market crisis. This of course depends on how many may view their loans as money like when they have been transformed and how this market place securitises the loan book. At the present moment in time it may also increase the amount of consumer debt over and above safe levels, although this would not necessarily be an issue in less leveraged environments.
US Employment Chart Combo
US total private sector employment growth: the rolling cumulative 5 year rate of change using high water mark analysis. The last two growth cycles have been way below your typical post war level.
And you wonder why economic growth is low?
Critical perspectives on US Market Valuations 2…includes 17 charts
Many say that lower interest rates should raise asset valuations by lowering the rate at which future income streams are discounted. This may be fine for high quality government bonds where coupons are fixed, but is not necessarily the case for equities where we are dependent on future flows (earnings, dividends, economic growth, CAPEX).
What is the major determinant of long term real equity returns? Earnings growth, and long term earnings growth is dependent on real economic growth. If we look at real growth rates they are falling, and have been falling for some time. This is part of the reason why interest rates have been falling; that is to accommodate falls in nominal and ultimately real flows.
The following shows annualised annual growth rates over rolling 15 year time frames (in other words geometric returns) compared to the Shiller Cyclically Adjusted PE ratio:
Critical Perspectives on US Market valuations…1
These charts merely introduce the need for greater perspective when assessing valuations and valuation metrics and are not definitive. I will explore these issues in the next few posts.
People say that current market valuations are not extremely high and that relative to bond yields they are historically attractive:
A world in transition, but so many straws in the wind, some thoughts!
Everybody is asking and at times hoping to answer the question as to why world economic growth is slowing down, why is it so sub par, why has it not recovered post the turbulence of 2007 to 2009? There are many straws in the wind, but which ones are cause, which ones are consequence and which are accommodation linking both? In a world where diverging tiny margins can accumulate into significant distances it is hard to determine just what and which is the key.
Not a "Savings Glut" per se but a monetary excess amidst a period of complex global structural economic change!
If you stream through the data it is pretty clear that developed economy growth has been slowing for some time and that monetary policy has accommodated this adjustment with lower interest rates and a relaxed attitude towards money supply growth. At about the same time these trends were moving ever closer to their sweet spot on the horizon (because we are not yet at peak of this particular movement) certain developing markets really got going, with the help of a fair amount of their own monetary stimulus but also by a reconfiguration of global supply chains and offshoring in key economies. All factors combined to create a heady and dangerous global financial imbalance, a weak bridge cast across a widening economic divide. No wonder it all came crashing down..but who was to blame? The world's central bankers who were blindsided into excessively lax monetary policy by a low inflationary world that had become obsessed with laying off and chopping and dicing of risk to those "who could best absorb and bear it", or some of the finer strings in the mesh? Well, some have chosen to blame excess savings in the emerging/developing part of the world, principally China, but this is all too pat. The "savings glut" theory, if you can really call it "excess savings", was merely a return of serve of part of the vast ocean of financial and monetary excess that barrelled through the early to mid 2000s.
World Trade Micro Blog: has the growth stage of the cycle peaked?
World trade growth is slowing down. Note: 6 monthly growth rate of exports.
Shorter term data shows a sharper drop for Japan and a general deceleration elsewhere. Has the European export recovery peaked?
And on a fundamental note, it looks as if the higher growth period of the post crisis recovery has now ended:
Not a Savings Glut, a much more complex dynamic of global imbalance and monetary excess.
For me the "Savings Glut" Hypothesis falls down on a number of key areas:
The first and most important is that it appears to ignore significant loan/monetary growth which breaks the point in time National Income Identity on which "Savings Glut" arguments apparently rest. I say apparently because much of the discourse supporting the SG hypothesis is either couched in nuanced semantic surfing and/or bereft of argument that you can trace directly back to the source of the flows from which they derive savings. Many supporters of the SG hypothesis either ignore these monetary dynamics totally or disavow them without cause.
The second is that it ignores the foreign exchange and central bank monetary dynamics involved in much of the FX/asset purchases. Key components of the trade balance/net investment position were orchestrated by Central banks creating new money to buy dollars and thence assets.
The third is that it ignores the fact that the major mega surplus economy, China, was and remains to a very large extent driven by loan financed (new money) gross fixed capital investment. Again the basic National Income Identity model misses a myriad of inter temporal dynamics. The SG argument was that it was excess savings and not monetary and financial system excess that caused the crisis and to fully understand the imbalances you have to look at where National Income/output is derived.
The fourth is that it ignores the very important development of emerging Asia as a global production hub and the off shoring dynamics that saw significant components of US and other international manufacturers move tranches of their manufacturing base to these countries. This issue is well covered and documented.
Finally, as discussed in numerous papers, focussing only on the net investment flows ignores vast sources of excess demand for assets that were also instrumental in pushing financial markets out of synchonisation with their economic fundamentals.
I will look to explore and illustrate these arguments in coming posts.
US Manufacturing New Orders "Chartfest"
Oh how I wish new order data was price adjusted!
Links–9 March to 31 March
A round up of tweeted information of Central Bank quarterlies, research and views on secular stagnation, income inequality, monetary policy and interest rates, markets, economies and assets and financial services regulation including the tug of war between best interest standards and "suitability"….and much much more!
Some brief thoughts on US Incomes and expenditures
Inflationary dynamics have brought about a large relative increase in real incomes over the last six months or so.
Yes it looks as if much of the most recent improvement has not been "spent", but it is only 1 or 2 months into this gap which must itself be set against strained income increases over the last decade. Longer trends and frames remain important for the sustained growth rates over time and the current frame remains a weak one. Personal consumption expenditures as a % of disposable income remain at historically high levels and consumer credit growth may also be a notably factor weighing against leeway for growth in consumption (see end of post).
Re Andy Haldane: my brief comments on deflationary risks and interest rates
This is a quickly penned thought on Andy Haldane's recent comments on interest rates and deflation:
In a recent speech Andy Haldane of the Bank of England suggested that interest rates may well need to fall as opposed to rise following on from recent falls in inflation. I would agree that the secondary impacts of price declines need to be seen before we can assess whether or not these price falls could indeed trigger stronger deflationary forces.
For one, price declines may lead to lower revenues (note US retail sales) and lower revenues may impact on wage increases.
Secondly, lower revenues impact cash flows and cash flows impact asset prices, especially for high yield debt in sensitive sectors. Global markets remain especially sensitive to asset price movements and factors which may impact asset prices.
Thirdly, we are in a complex deflationary frame where aging populations, slowing population growth and relative weakness in corporate investment (note buybacks) is already a significant drag on the global economy. Falling prices could well trigger latent dynamics in this structure.
And finally, areas of the world which could well create the demand necessary to reinvigorate the frame, for example China where growth appears to be slowing sharply, may also be adding to tensions within the global growth frame.
So yes, interest rates could fall, in the sense of defending asset prices and attempting somehow (I do not quite know how) to reinvigorate or at least support demand, or rather maintain marginal cash flows.
But in reality we do not know because we lack at the moment a measure of the sensitivity of the frame to short term shocks of any financial or economic nature. We know the frame is weak and has been for some time but as to its sensitivity, we know very little.


text:
In combination with resonant sonic earth drilling components, and for particular use in retrieving a core sample in a core barrel seated against an internal shoulder in a sonically driven drill bit, a resilient axial loading device not only urges the bottom of the core barrel into continuous contact with the seat but also cushions the core barrel from the sonic energy in the drill bit, thereby minimizing damage to the core sample.
1. Axial loading device for use in sonic drilling system including an axially disposed resonant sonic head having a rigid case and vibrating oscillator, and coaxial oscillator center column, drill pipe, drill bit, core barrel and steel rod string, said device comprising:
a. an annular thrust cap having a central opening defined by threaded walls;
b. means for mounting said thrust cap coaxially on the rigid sonic head case;
c. a core barrel position adjustment sleeve having a flange on one end and a shoulder seat on the other end, a portion of the outer wall of said sleeve being threaded to conform to the threaded walls of said central opening of said thrust cap and a portion of the inner wall of said sleeve being threaded;
d. a base tube threaded on one end to engage the threads on the inner wall of said sleeve;
e. an outer tube having an internal diameter greater than the external diameter of said base tube and being coaxially mounted on said base tube with one end seated on said shoulder of said other end of said sleeve when said sleeve is externally threadably engaged with said thrust cap and internally threadably engaged with said base tube;
f. a helical compression spring coaxially exteriorly mounted on said base tube;
g. a first annular spring washer slidably disposed on said base tube, the other end of said outer tube abutting the adjacent surface of said first annular spring washer and the adjacent one end of said spring abutting the other surface of said first annular spring washer, said abutting outer tube preventing axial movement of said first annular spring washer toward said thrust cap;
h. a second annular spring washer slidably mounted on said base tube the other end of said spring abutting said second annular spring washer;
i. a retainer ring mounted on the other end of said base tube;
j. a bearing washer abutting said ring;
k. a connector guide coaxially and slidably mounted on said base tube, one end of said guide abutting said second annular spring washer, the other end of said guide abutting said bearing washer in expanded position of said spring and being spaced from said retainer ring in compressed position of said spring;
l. a connector coaxially disposed on said base tube, one end of said connector being supported on said other end of said guide and the other end of said connector being slidably supported on said bearing washer;
m. means on said other end of said connector for attaching the steel rod string and the core barrel; and,
n. lock nut means for securing said base tube and said core barrel adjustment sleeve in predetermined position so that the length of said compression spring is such as to provide optimum compressive force on the core barrel shoe seated on the drill bit and optimum cushioning effect in isolating the sonic energy present in the drill bit from the core barrel shoe in contact therewith.
2. Axial loading device for use in sonic drilling system including a resonant sonic head having a rigid case and an oscillator within said case and vibrationally isolated therefrom, an oscillator center column, a drill pipe connected at one end to the center column, a drill bit mounted on the other end of said drill pipe and including an internal shoulder seat, a core barrel having a cap at one end and at the other end a shoe seated on said internal shoulder, and a steel rod string detachably mounted at one end on said core barrel cap, said device comprising:
a. an elongated base tube extending coaxially relative to said center column between one end rigidly secured to the rigid case of the sonic head and the other end adjacent the steel rod string extending to the core barrel;
b. a limit stop on said base tube intermediate the ends thereof;
c. a slide member translatably mounted on said other end of said base tube, one end of said slide member facing toward said limit stop and the other end of said slide member including means for detachably connecting said slide member to the other end of the steel rod string;
d. resilient means interposed between said limit stop and said slide member for urging said steel rod string and said core barrel toward said drill bit; and,
e. threaded means for adjustably positioning said base tube longitudinally relative to said center column in order to optimize the urgency exerted by said resilient means against the shoulder seat of the drill bit and the extent of sonic energy absorbed by said resilient means in protecting the core sample within the core barrel.
3. An axial loading device as in claim 2 in which said resilient urging means is a spring.
4. An axial loading device as in claim 2 in which said resilient urging means is a pressurized fluid driven device.
5. An axial loading device as in claim 3 in which said threaded positioning means includes a thrust cap mounted coaxially on the rigid case of the sonic head, an adjustment sleeve threadably connected to said thrust cap and to said base tube, first lock nut means for maintaining the relative position of said adjustment sleeve and said thrust cap and second lock nut means for maintaining the relative position of said adjustment sleeve and said base tube.
6. An axial loading device as in claim 5 including an outer tube of predetermined length interposed between said adjustment sleeve and said compression spring.
7. Sonic drilling method comprising the steps of:
a. providing a resonant sonic drilling head having a rigid case and a vibrating oscillator;
b. coupling a drill string comprising a drill pipe and a drill bit to the oscillator so that the drill bit is sonically vibrated to yield a core of formation material;
c. positioning a core barrel coaxially within the drill pipe with the lower end of the core barrel in juxtaposition with the drill bit to receive the core of formation material emergent from the drill bit;
d. connecting the upper end of the core barrel to a resilient member; and,
e. connecting the resilient member to the rigid case in order to cushion the core barrel from the sonic forces exerted by the oscillator.
8. Sonic drilling method as in claim 7 comprising the further step of forming an internal shoulder in the drill bit to provide a seat for the juxtaposed lower end of the core barrel.
9. Sonic drilling method as in claim 8 comprising the still further step of interposing a compliant member between the internal shoulder of the drill bit and the juxtaposed lower end of the core barrel.
10. Sonic drilling member as in claim 7 comprising the further steps of interposing a sub in the drill string above the drill bit, and of forming an internal shoulder in the sub to provide a seat for the juxtaposed lower end of the core barrel.
The invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for drilling and coring earth formations and, more particularly, to improvements in the coring system disclosed in Bodine U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,299 for Sonic Method and Apparatus for Installing Monitor Wells for the Surveillance and Control of Earth Contamination. The disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,299 (the '299 patent) is incorporated by reference herein.
The most pertinent prior art is the '299 patent disclosing the Bodine sonic drilling system, or technique.
Although the Bodine system provides numerous advantages over previous arrangements for penetrating the earth and altering surface and sub-surface earth with minimal environmental disturbance, the manner in which the core barrel is isolated from the transmitted sonic energy in the drill pipe of the Bodine system leaves room for improvement.
In other words, although the '299 patent depicts (in FIGS. 4 and 4A) and describes (in Column 4) compliant isolator ring members 35a and 35b at the opposite ends of the inner casing member 34 (core barrel) in order sonically to isolate the inner casing member 34 from the driven outer casing member 31 (drill pipe), so that the core material 50 is not significantly changed, it has been found that under certain conditions, additional cushioning is desirable.
It is therefore a major object of the present invention to provide means for effectively cushioning the core barrel against the transmitted sonic energy, thereby minimizing damage to the core sample.
It is another object of the invention to hold the core barrel resiliently but securely against the bit face seat by imposing a resilient axial load on the core barrel as core sampling proceeds.
It is still another object of the invention to facilitate the taking of dry, continuous core samples of near in situ quality in a safe and efficient manner.
Other objects, together with the foregoing, are attained in the embodiments described in the accompanying description and shown in the attached sheets of drawing of the various figures.
FIG. 1 is a stylized elevational view, largely in median longitudinal cross section, of a preferred embodiment of the axial loading device core system installed on a sonic head;
FIG. 2 is a stylized view comparable to FIG. 1, but to an enlarged scale, illustrating structural details of the device.
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, stylized, median longitudinal cross-sectional view, to a slightly enlarged scale, illustrating a modified arrangement for seating the lower end of the core barrel.
The resonant sonic technology was first developed in the 1950's by Albert Go Bodine, patentee of numerous patents including U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,299, dated Jun. 6, 1986 (the '299 patent) presently owned by Water Development Technologies, Inc. of Woodland, Calif. 95776. Water Development Technologies, Inc. is also owner, by assignment, of the present patent application.
The resonant sonic drilling method uses a hydraulic drill head including an oscillator adapted to transmit sinusoidal pressure waves through a steel drill pipe to create a cutting action at the bit face. The pressure waves are created by two counter-rotating, offset balance roller weights each having an eccentric axis located in the oscillator of the sonic drill head.
The drill head is designed to operate at frequencies close to the natural frequency of the steel drill column, thereby causing the column to vibrate elastically along its longitudinal axis. In the resonant condition, the drill column stores and releases energy, thereby generating large forces between the drill bit and the earth formation. Operating frequencies exceeding 150 Hz (150 cycles per second) and forces ranging up to 1112 KN (250,000 lbs-force) per cycle are reliably generated by ResonantSonic.SM. drill heads developed by Water Development Corporation, a company related to Water Development Technologies, Inc.
There are several ways to perform the sonic drilling technique, some being more effective than others.
Where core sampling for analysis is to be made, it is important that the core, when removed from the drill pipe assembly, be undamaged. One approach which yields an especially high quality core utilizes a steel rod string in combination with an axially elongated structure termed, for convenience, an axial loading device. This arrangement not only isolates the core barrel from the sonic action but prevents retraction of the core barrel from the drill bit shoe as sonic coring occurs.
As most clearly appears in the stylized disclosure in FIG. 1, the axial loading device of the invention, generally designated by the reference numeral 11, is secured to the top 12 of an air spring housing 13 mounted centrally on the outer case 14 of a resonant sonic drill head 16.
The construction and operation of the resonant sonic drill head 16 is well known. Disposed within the outer case 14 of the sonic head 16 is an oscillator 17 including a body 18 having formed therein a pair of orbital races 19 within which a respective pair of eccentric rollers 21 are caused to revolve at high speed in counter-rotating directions, as indicated by the directional arrows.
The energy impulses created by the oscillator 17 are transmitted to a center column 23 extending through the oscillator. A pair of thrust bearings 24 enhances the operation of the oscillator-center column coupling. The center column 23 extends from an upper end 26, projecting upwardly beyond the top 12 of the air spring housing 13, to a lower end characterized by a flange 27 for bolted connection to the flange 28 of a casing adapter 29, or casing sub, which, in turn, terminates in a tapered threaded pin 30 adapted to engage with a threaded box 31 at the upper end of a section of drill pipe 32. The lower end of the section of drill pipe 32 is provided with a threaded pin 33 similar to the pin 30 at the bottom of the sub 29; and, in like manner, is adapted to engage with the box 31 at the upper end of another section of drill pipe 32. Each section of drill pipe 32 is commonly ten feet in length, sufficient sections being employed to reach the depth required for coring.
At the lower end of the bottom section of drill pipe 32 is mounted a drill bit 34, the drill pipe 32 and the drill bit 34 being designated by the term drill string 40. The upper end of the drill bit 34 includes a box 35 to engage the threaded pin 33 of the superjacent drill pipe section; and the lower end of the drill bit 34 terminates in an enlarged bit face 36, at the lower end of an enlarged bit shoe 37.
The drill bit face 36 can assume various different forms depending on the type of soil, gravel, rock, large boulders or other formation to be sampled.
The enlarged bit shoe 37 at the lower end of the drill bit 34 is formed with an internal shoulder 38 which provides a seat for the substantially congruent bottom end 39 of the core barrel 41, as shown in FIG. 1.
In order to reduce wear on the internal shoulder 38 of the bit shoe 37, and to afford cushioning, a compliant ring 44 can be interposed between the seat 38 and the lower end 39 of the core barrel 41. FIG. 3 illustrates such a ring on a variant configuration. The ring 44 can be of a durable elastomeric material, for example.
The variant configuration shown in FIG. 3 comprises a threaded sub 45 interposed between the bottom end of the drill pipe 32 and a modified form of drill bit 34'. The sub 45 includes an internal shoulder 48 which provides a seat for the bottom end 39 of the core barrel 41, comparable to the internal shoulder 38 of the drill bit 34 shown in FIG. 1. The FIG. 3 variation prevents wear from taking place on the shoulder seat 38; and, as shown, a compliant ring 44 serves to cushion and reduce wear on the interfaces of the seat 48 provided by the sub 45 and the lower end 39 of the core barrel 41.
Preferably, the core barrel 41 is of the longitudinally split type in order to facilitate core sample extraction with least damage to the sample. During use, the two halves of the core barrel are held firmly together by a cap 42 and a shoe 43 threaded on the respective top and bottom of the core barrel.
Reverting to the FIG. 1 configuration, it can be seen that the bottom of the shoe 43 seats on the internal shoulder 38 of the drill bit 34 and the inside diameter of the core barrel is slightly larger than the inside diameter of the drill bit face so that a core sample 46 emerging from the sonically driven bit face 36 smoothly enters the central sample chamber 47 of the core barrel 41.
By coupling the resonant sonic drill head to the drill pipe, the cutting action developed at the bit face yields a continuous core of formation material moving into the core barrel. Inherent in the transfer of core material from the drill bit to the core barrel is the tendency of the outer wall of the core sample 46 frictionally to engage the encompassing wall of the core barrel chamber 47 and thereby lift the bottom of the core barrel off the seat 38. This tendency can be alleviated to some extent by the provision of a core barrel liner (not shown) having a low coefficient of friction, such as Lexan, and by making the inside diameter of the core barrel 41 somewhat larger than that of the inside diameter of the bit face 36, as previously mentioned and as shown.
In FIG. 1, the cap 42 is shown in the form of a barrel in which the top portion of the core sample is sometimes located at the end of the sampling period. Since this top portion of the core sample is often in damaged condition it is usually discarded or sloughed off, hence the name slough barrel.
A positive step in the direction of overcoming the tendency of the core barrel 41 to become separated from the internal shoulder 38 in the drill bit 34 as coring proceeds is the axial loading device 11 of the present invention, as will now be described in detail.
The axial loading device 11, as appears in FIG. 1, is encapsulated, for the most part, within the center column 23 which, as previously stated, partakes of the sonic vibration generated by the oscillator 17 inside the sonic drill head case 14.
The case 14 as well as the air spring housing 13 are rigid, or fixed, in the sense that they do not sonically vibrate. Thus, by mounting the axial loading device 11 on the housing 13, the device of the invention is also isolated.
In other words, the axial loading device 11 does not sonically vibrate even though the center column 23 surrounding the device carries and transmits the resonant sonic energy impulses from the oscillator 17 to the drill pipe 32, thence to the drill bit 34, the drill pipe 32 and drill bit 34 being collectively termed drill string, for convenience.
Providing the mounting of the axial loading device 11 to the drill head 16, as by fastenings 50, is a thrust cap 51 comprising a circular in plan steel plate having a central opening defined by a cylindrical threaded wall 52.
Adapted threadably to engage the threaded interior wall 52 is the threaded exterior wall 53 of a generally cylindrical member termed a core barrel position adjustment sleeve 54 surmounted by a flange 55. Approximately axially, or longitudinally, coextensive with the flange 55, a portion 56 of the interior wall 57 of the sleeve 54 is threaded, the balance of the interior wall 57 being smooth and having a slightly larger diameter to accommodate, with some clearance, the smooth exterior wall portion 58 of a base tube 59.
The outer wall on the uppermost end portion 61 of the base tube 59 is threaded to engage the internal threaded portion 56 of the sleeve 54 and to receive a base tube lock nut 62.
As best appears in FIG. 1, the axial loading device 11 is radially symmetrical, for the most part, about an axis 64 which is shown as being vertical in the present disclosure. It should be noted, however, that in field use, slant drilling is well within the capabilities of the structure disclosed.
Although not limited thereto in actual practice, the base tube 59 terminates at a lower end 66 in the vicinity of the casing adapter 29, or casing sub.
In performing the dual function of (a) maintaining the bottom end 39 of the core barrel 41 in juxtaposition to the internal shoulder 38 in the drill bit 34, or to the shoulder 48 of an interposed sub 45, and (b) cushioning the core barrel 41 from the destructive effects of sonic vibration on the core sample 46 within the core barrel, the present device utilizes resilient means, such as a helical compression spring 68, as shown. A tension spring or other resilient and cushioning means, including pressurized fluid driven devices, such as hydraulic or pneumatic rams, afford reasonable alternatives.
The helical compression spring 68 is interposed between an L-shaped-in-section upper spring washer 69 slidably disposed on the base tube 59 and a T-shaped in section lower spring washer 70, also slidably disposed on the base tube 59.
The longitudinal axial placement of the upper spring washer 69 is determined by the length of an outer tube 72 seated at its upper end on a shoulder 74 formed in the lower end of the core barrel position adjustment sleeve 54 and seated at its lower end on the adjacent shoulder of the upper spring washer 69.
The longitudinal axial placement of the lower spring washer 70 is governed by the instantaneous position of two elongated members coaxially disposed relative to the base tube 59.
The lower of the two members is termed a core rod connector 76 since, at its bottom end it includes a fitting 77 adapted for quick coupling to a mating fitting 78 on the upper end 79 of a core rod 80 which extends axially downwardly where the lower end 81 of the core rod 80 is detachably connected either to the upper end 82 of the core barrel 41 or to the top section of one or more axially arranged intermediate core rods 80 ultimately terminating in a detachable connection to the core barrel 41.
The upper end of the core rod connector 76 is supported on the lower end 85 of a connector guide 86 slidably mounted on the base tube 59, the upper end of the connector guide 84 abutting the adjacent surfaces of the washer 70.
Downward travel of the connector guide 86 under spring urgency is limited by abutment with a bearing washer 88 positioned by an external lock ring 89, or retainer ring, snapped into a groove adjacent the lowermost end 66 of the base tube 59, the bearing washer 88 interfering with a bushing on the lower end 85 of the guide 86 when the spring 68 is in extended position.
Upward travel of the core rod connector 76 is limited by the presence of the same bearing washer 88 which interferes with a shoulder 91 located adjacent the upper end of the fitting 77 when the spring is in compressed position.
Thus, the maximum longitudinal travel of the combined connector guide 86 and core rod connector 76 (and the resulting maximum extent of compression and extension of the spring 68) is determined by the distance between the bushing on the lower end 85 of the guide 86 and the shoulder 91 on the core rod connector 76.
A plurality of O-rings 93 are strategically located on the combined members 76 and 86 to afford sealing and improved operation of the combined members.
Downward force is imposed by the bottom end of the spring 68 (acting through the combined members 76 and 86) as the core rods 80 are installed and the bottom one of the core rods is connected to the core barrel 41, urging the bottom end 39 of the core barrel 41 against the seat 38 provided by interior shoulder of the drill bit 34.
Reaction, in an upward direction, against the bottom end of the spring 68, occurs as sonic energy is imposed on the drill bit 34 by the drill pipe 32 to which the drill bit is attached.
The spring force opposing the reactive force is dependent upon the extent to which the spring 68 is compressed. In order to achieve optimum performance, compression or expansion of the spring is effected by adjustment of the components of the device conveniently located above the thrust cap.
In other words, assuming that drilling has proceeded to the point where the drill bit face 36 has entered a stratum 95, or bed, to be sampled and the core sample 46, having been separated by the sonic energy present at the bit face, begins to enter the core barrel 41, as in FIG. 1, there is a tendency for the core sample 46 to urge the core barrel upward off the seat 38, as previously stated. If the downward force provided by the spring 68 is inadequate, the upward urgency imposed by the entering core sample 46 could result in unseating the bottom end 39 of the core barrel 41 from the internal shoulder 38 of the bit face, with consequent potential for damage to the core sample.
If, on the contrary, the spring 68 is overly compressed and exerts too great a downward force, an unwanted amount of sonic energy will be transferred from the drill bit face to the bottom end of the core barrel, with possible resultant damage to the core sample.
When the spring urgency is in the optimum range, sufficient downward force is imposed on the core barrel to overcome the lifting force caused by the entering core sample but not enough to create a rigid system with its attendant problems.
With the spring force in optimum range (usually about mid-range) an experienced operator can, by listening to the sound of the coring operation, determine whether the core barrel is being lifted off the seat 38 since the sound of the impact between the shoe 43 and the seat 38 of the drill bit 34 ceases. By reducing coring speed, the constant spring force will restore the contact between the shoe 43 and the seat 38 and the sound resumes.
In order to adjust the axial loading device 11, either to decrease or increase spring force on the core barrel, the base tube lock nut 62 and the core barrel position adjustment sleeve lock nut 60 are loosened. This enables the operator to shift the core barrel axially so that with the entire string assembled, all slack is removed and the bottom of the core barrel is seated on the internal shoulder 38 of the bit. At this juncture, the core barrel position adjustment lock nut 60 is tightened into face to face engagement with the top surface of the thrust cap.
Next, the base tube 59 is rotated about its own axis 64, the threaded engagement between the base tube's externally threaded portion 61 and the adjustment sleeve's internally threaded portion 56 causing axial movement of the base tube with resultant corresponding movement of the retainer ring 89 and attendant bearing washer 88.
With all slack out of the entire string, and with the spring 68 in maximum compressed condition caused by the bearing washer 88 engaging and pressing upwardly on the lower end 85 of the connector guide 86, the system is substantially rigid and sonic vibration is likely to be transferred from the drill bit to the core barrel, with deleterious consequences to the core sample.
In this situation, the base tube 59 would be rotated in a direction such that the base tube is translated in an axially downward direction, lowering the bearing washer 88 and allowing the connector guide 86 to descend, resulting in expansion of the spring 68 and consequent reduction in spring force urging the core barrel downwardly against the seat 38 in the drill bit.
Upon reaching optimum position, the base tube 59 is locked by tightening the base tube lock nut 62 against the flange 55 of the core barrel position adjustment sleeve 54.
Resonant sonic drilling can then proceed in five foot, ten foot, twenty foot, or longer core runs as dictated by sampling requirements. Once the desired amount of core is in the core barrel, the core rods 80, also termed inner drill rod, and the core barrel 41 are removed in sections from the borehole 96 and the core is retrieved.
The outer drill pipe 32 remains in place to support the borehole 96 while the core barrel 41 is removed.
Owing to the high forces developed by the resonant sonic drill head 16 and the externally flush nature of the drill pipe 32, formation material displaced by the cutting face 36 of the drill bit 34 is forced either into the surrounding borehole wall 96 or into the core barrel chamber 47, with the result that no cuttings are generated in the drilling operation. In order to enhance core quality, little, if any, rotation of the drill pipe 32 or core rods 80 is used in this type of operation.
Another arrangement for core retrieval involves the use of a wireline system wherein the bottom end 39 of the core barrel 41 simply rests on the internal shoulder 38 of the drill bit 34 and the cored material is displaced into the core barrel 41. In lieu of the downward urgency of the helical compression spring 68, a weight on top of the core barrel 41 provides resistance as the soil enters the core barrel chamber 47. Since this is a less positive way of filling the core barrel 41, it is limited by short drilling intervals, on the order of about six inches to three feet. As a result, even though the wireline system is faster than the "dual rod" arrangement (i.e. the drill pipe 32, or drill rod, plus core rod 80) shown and described herein, in detail, for retrieving a core sample, the drilling time often takes longer and causes more wear on the system components.
The action of the ResonantSonic.SM. drill system in achieving penetration varies with the type of subterranean formation and is a result of impact forces that cause displacement, shearing and fracturing actions.
In some earth formations, in order to provide a "fresh" rock surface to the drill bit, continuous rotation of the drill steel is superimposed upon the vibrational action. The structure required to effect rotation is neither shown nor described herein since sonic heads developed by Water Development Technologies, Inc. afford this capability. In certain types of drilling, the operation is improved by the use of tungsten carbide buttons 97 embedded at strategic locations in the face 36 of the drill bit 34.
Each of the drilling actions, displacement, shearing and fracturing, results in a core of formation material moving into the resonating drill column and thence into the core barrel, as penetration progresses. The cored material retrieved from the core barrel, as previously discussed, will have suffered minimal damage owing to the resilient nature of the axial loading device shown and described.
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Seagate Ships World's Fastest 6 TB Hard Drive
Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced it is now shipping the world's fastest 6 TB hard disk drive (HDD) - the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4. Boasting industry-leading performance, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 is an important step forward in scale-out data infrastructures delivering supersize storage and enterprise reliability to meet the explosive growth of corporate and cloud-based data centers.
"Unstructured data growth is doubling exponentially and will propel the digital universe to reach 16 Zettabytes of data by as early as 2017. This will cause cloud service providers to look for innovative ways to store more within an existing footprint while lowering operational costs," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Seagate is poised to address this challenge by offering the fastest 6 TB enterprise capacity HDD based on our proven, reliable platform meeting this never-ending demand in both private and public cloud data centers."
Featuring the fastest performance available for a nearline HDD, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 enables faster data transfers by building on an eighth-generation platform that enables the drive to deliver up to a 25 percent increase in performance over competing 6 TB drives - making it ideal for 24 X 7 bulk data storage. Utilizing the latest generation of 12 Gb/s SAS, the drive provides customers with the scalability for future-proofing their systems. It is also available in an enterprise-ready SATA 6 Gb/s interface for easy system integration.
"Supermicro's new TwinPro and wide range of SuperServer, SuperStorage solutions all feature integrated 12 Gb/s SAS 3.0 support enabling full and immediate access to the maximum performance and capacity offered by Seagate's new 6 TB 12 Gb/s Enterprise-class HDDs," said Wally Liaw, vice president of sales, international at Supermicro. "In addition to the increased I/O bandwidth, our SAS3 optimized platforms are cost competitive with current SAS2 6 Gb/s enabled systems offering customers not only performance but also accelerated ROI advantages. With Seagate's new 6 TB Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4, Supermicro now offers the most cost effective scale-out storage solutions maximized for performance, density and energy efficiency in enterprise, data center, cloud and HPC applications."
A family of drives with up to 6 TB of capacity, the Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 provides customers with the highest capacity density needed to address an ever increasing amount of unstructured data in an industry-standard 3.5-inch HDD. Supporting the highest density storage per square foot in the industry, it features a 50 percent increase in capacity over the last generation (4 TB) nearline drive. Ideal for both replicated and RAID environments, the drive delivers a lower TCO for enterprise storage by providing the highest capacity available without sacrificing performance.
The drive employs multi-drive rotational vibration tolerance for consistent enterprise-class performance and accurate data storage in high density environments. With its robust 7200-RPM performance, ramp load technology, and a humidity sensor, it delivers optimum performance even in the harshest environments. Purpose-built for enterprise environments, the drive utilizes the T10 and T13-compliant power management standards enabling organizations to tailor systems for optimal energy usage resulting in up to 90 percent more power savings.
Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 Key Features:
- Industry-Leading Performance- 25 percent faster than competitive 6 TB drives.
- Highest Capacity Available-Up to 6 TB per drive for maximum density server and storage solutions.
- Enterprise-Class Reliability- Industry-leading rotational vibration tolerance for consistent performance and enhanced error correction for accurate data storage.
- Best-in-Class Security- Self-Encrypting Drives (SED) with Instant Secure Erase for easy drive disposal or repurposing and FIPS SED security options.
The drive is shipping now to select Cloud partners and resellers globally. It will also be integrated into Seagate business and branded storage products starting this spring.
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Top Scorers
- A. Lacazette
Olympique Lyonnais
- 27
- A. Gignac
Olympique Marseille
- 21
- Z. Ibrahimovic
- 19
- E. Cavani
- 18
- M. Gradel
- 17
Ligue 1
- Marseille bid for Milton Casco
French giants Marseille are hot on the trail of Argentina international defender Milton Casco, according to L'Equipe. OM hope to […] [+]
- Newcastle keen on Florian Thauvin
Premier League outfit Newcastle United are readying bid for Marseille starlet Florian Thauvin, Newcastle Chronicle has learned. The Magpies have […] [+]
- PSG end Tremoulinas chase
French giants Paris Saint-Germain have puled out of the race to sign Sevilla defender Benoit Tremoulinas, according to L'Equipe. The […] [+]
- Real eyeing Ricardo Rodriguez; Man City to bid for Alex Sandro
Real eyeing Ricardo Rodriguez Spanish daily newspaper Marca is reporting that Real Madrid are considering summer swoop for Wolfsburg hotshot […] [+]
- Manchester United open talks with Romero
Manchester United are in talks with Sergio Romero over signing a three-year deal, according to the Mail Online. With David […] [+]
- PSG 4 Fiorentina 2: Blanc´s men too good
An impressive Paris Saint-Germain were far too good for Fiorentina at the International Champions Cup, winning 4-2 on Tuesday. Jean-Kevin […] [+]
- Lyon eyeing Lucas Hernandez
Lyon are considering a summer move for Atletico Madrid starlet Lucas Hernandez, El Mundo Deportivo has learned. Les Gones have […] [+]
- Sherwood eyes Adebayor reunion
Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood is keen to bring in Emmanuel Adebayor as he looks for a replacement for the […] [+]
- Umtiti and Ferri pen Lyon extensions
Lyon duo Samuel Umtiti and Jordan Ferri have both committed their futures to the club by penning new contract extensions. […] [+]
- Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann 2/1 to join PSG this summer
Competition: Spanish La Liga Market: Antoine Griezmann to join PSG Odds: 2/1 @ Ladbrokes Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann has […] [+]
- Marseille keen on Alberto Aquilani
French giants Marseille are hot on the trail of Serie A star Alberto Aquilani, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. […] [+]
- Alex Telles on PSG radar; Leicester bid for Nice starlet
Alex Telles on PSG radar Turkish media outlet Haberturk is reporting that Paris Saint-Germain are readying bid for Galatasaray defender […] [+]
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Netherlands international defender Gregory van der Wiel is almost certain to leave Paris Saint-Germain in the near future, according to […] [+]
- Steve Mandanda wants Marseille exit
Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda plans to leave the club in the summer transfer window, L'Equipe has claimed. The 30-year-old has […] [+]
- Lacazette to stay with Lyon
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- Blanc: Victory a boost for youngsters
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- Benfica 2 PSG 3: Youthful Ligue 1 champions come from behind
An undermanned Paris Saint-Germain came from behind to beat Benfica 3-2 at the International Champions Cup on Saturday. Lucas Digne […] [+]
- PSG join chase for Witsel
Paris Saint-Germain are hot on the trail of Zenit star Axel Witsel, French media outlet Le 10 Sport has revealed. […] [+]
- Troyes and Bastia get green light to play in Ligue 1
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Paris Saint-Germain are set to launch an assault on Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, according to RevierSport. The Saints could […] [+]
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Sporting's Slimani nears England move Portuguese daily newspaper A Bola is reporting that a host of English Premier League sides […] [+]
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text:
Roger Christian
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I can't believe I filled out NCAA "brackets"
by Roger Christian
posted Mar 19 2008 9:16AM
After the demise of my beloved BUFFALO BRAVES (see left Bob
NBA MVP in 1975 and Randy Smith from the Braves later years) I never really had an interest in Basketball. I will admit though that Coach Reggie
Bulls of a
of years ago piqued my interest but never like the "fever pitch" of some of my co-workers here in Amherst's Corporate Parkway. Well last night, at the urging of our sister station's (
550) Program Director Andy Roth, I did (f
or the first time EVER) fill out "brackets" to enter his NCAA College Basketball
Pool. Never did I ever think I would, but now that I'm "in," I'll watch with greater interest the Tournament maybe just for selfish reasons gain a little more appreciation for "round-ball" again.
Back To Blog
I can't believe I filled out NCAA "brackets"
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Audience Education
Here's your chance to learn more!
Does classical music sound like a foreign language to you?
We believe that the music is inherently beautiful, but that the history and significance of the composer, the composition, and the ensemble enrich the listening experience. That is why we offer these exciting education events for our audience and community.
Pre-Concert Lectures – Listen like a professional!
Forty-five minutes before each 3 p.m. Sunday concert, all attendees are invited to join CMT Executive Director Bruce Sorrell, musicologist Jason Heilman, and special guests for an insider's preview of the techniques, history, and significance of the upcoming performance.
Mochas with the Musicologist and The (Chamber) Music of Schubert
Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. – come early to order coffee!
August 29th, 2015
January 30, 2015
Mochas with the Musicologist returns for its third season of musical conversations over coffee! Join local musicologist Jason Heilman and find out what exciting music awaits you on each half of Chamber Music Tulsa's 2015-16 Season. Jason will allow time for an informal Q&A session so don't forget to bring your burning musical questions.
The Phoenix is located at 6th and Peoria. Parking is available across Peoria.


text:
Riad Zehar
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Second-last night in Morocco
... by the fact the shopkeepers were all breaking fast). At the hotel we fondly said our goodbyes as our train was set to depart at 6:45am and only one of the girls coming with us back to Casablanca. We'd be flying out of Morocco tomorrow for Barcelona but would have one more night in Rabat on the way back to rejoin our connecting leg home. As much fun as it has been in Morocco, I am really keen to switch tagines for tapas and do my best to eat a huge amount of another new country's ...
Lost in the souks
... protected from the scandal that is women dancing). Lastly were the living quarters where his four official wives and their children lived (his favourite obviously occupying the most grand space). As with other cities in the tour we spent a lot of time negotiating the cramped alleyways of the medina. But at this time of the morning most of the souks were doubling as workshops: shopkeepers sitting dying leather goods and stitching bags and sandals; a chorus of tapping ...
Melting in Marrakech
... of Marrakech. Because of the close proximity to the water-providing mountains and the international investments the city has a lot of fertility and wealth - perhaps most obviously displayed by the many golf courses we passed on the way. Entering the city itself there was an instant abundance of beautiful gardens, manicured hedges and tree-lined streets. The greenery provided a fresh contrast to the large clay city walls that stretch some 19km around the old city. ...
Farewell to the frenetic city
... the labyrinthine streets, navigating via a series of signs painted roughly onto walls, guiding us past shops and through a winding series of alleyways. Electrical cables snaked above our heads, stonework crumbling on the walls, all of which, far from detracting from the beauty of the city, emphasised it. We were tempted into a Hamman that we passed, and given a guided tour of its sultry rooms, the oppressive heat sticking our clothes to us. Back into the relative cool of the ...
Morrocco 6 nights
... and green tea. The home has earthen floors but is very large and has electricity. About 10 local men are holding strands or bead necklaces very persistent sales technique. These men then follow our bus to the place for camel rides and continue the whole time we take turns to ride camels. A few more photo stops and then a tour of the small but beautifully decorated Muslim medina palace.


text:
Welcome, Guest
Sarati Vitamin B Complex Body
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(Vitamin B6), 5.9 mg of Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5).
There are approximately
46 1/4 tsp doses in a 2 ounce tube.
Each 2 ounce tube contains 141.2 mg of
Folinic Acid (Vitamin B9), 141.2 mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid, 28.2 mg of
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supplied measuring spoon is 1/4 teaspoon.
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2 fl. oz. tube. Contains approximately 46 uses.
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Vitabase Active Man's Formula
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text:
Kennesaw News
Local news for Kennesaw, GA continually updated from thousands of sources on the web.
T-C Line: Shooters should clean up after themselves
Yesterday | LongmontFYI | Comment?
With tax coffers filling again, it's a mad spending spree
Tuesday | MDJonline.com | Comment?
Tuesday | Journal of Chemical Education | Comment?
FrontDoor Communities Offers Quick Move-In Basement Homes at CopperLeaf
Monday | Patch.com | Comment?
Kennesaw Parents: Double Check Your Child's Bus Route Online
Monday Jul 27 | Patch.com | Comment?
New DDS location opens in Kennesaw
Sunday Jul 26 | MDJonline.com | Comment?
Time to go?
News 2,358
53 Stars Who Died Shockingly Young
How Should the US Government Respond to ISIS?
Shiloh cannoneers honor slain Marine
Sunday Jul 26 | The Jackson Sun | Comment?
Wedding: Anna Blythe Plemmons & Matthew Louis Bottino
Sunday Jul 26 | The Greenville News | Comment?
Community members line entrance of funeral home to pay respects to Marine
Sunday Jul 26 | MDJonline.com | Comment?
Saturday Jul 25 | Journal of Chemical Education | Comment?
ICYMI: Cobb's Unemployment Rate Up
Saturday Jul 25 | Patch.com | Comment?
Remembering Lance Corporal "Skip" Wells
Saturday Jul 25 | WTVM | Comment?
GA Wow Houses: Lake Lover's Dream, 'Stunning Showpiece,' 3,000-Bottle Wine Cellar, More
Saturday Jul 25 | Patch.com | Comment?
Mourners gather to pay respects to slain Ga. Marine
Friday Jul 24 | SFGate | Comment?
Driver Services Opens Kennesaw Office
Friday Jul 24 | Patch.com | Comment?
Management Jobs Kennesaw: Airgas, Mohawk Industries, Spirit Halloween
Friday Jul 24 | Patch.com | Comment?
In Loving Memory of John Lee Jones, Jr. 85
Thursday Jul 23 | Patch.com | Comment?
Updated: Tue Jul 28, 2015 09:19 pm
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"It tastes as though you have worked for hours, when in reality it is so super easy!"– MISSLIZA
"We have this at EVERY single family gathering. We have to plan the rest of the food around it because the entire family insists upon this particular recipe." – bmatheson
Recipe of the Day
Country House Bed and Breakfast Casserole
A versatile breakfast casserole which can be adapted to fit your needs or tastes.
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With our 2,700+ chicken breast recipes, you'll never serve the same old chicken again.
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Sweet Virginia ham pairs perfectly with peas, tomatoes, and sautéed garlic.
See how to make a cheesy baked casserole with ham, potatoes, and corn.
These easy and tasty little sliders are perfect for game day.


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on 11.02.2013
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Neumann U87 Ai Stereo Set - 2x U87 large diaphragm microphones, 2x EA87 shockmounts and 1x aluminium case (suitable for 2x microphones and 2x shockmounts). Colour: Nickel
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