The Weekly Top 3

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of June 22, 2020.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) the missing question so far in the 2020 election cycle, and why its the most important (1:50); 2) the underlying truth facing the University whoever is in charge (24:55) and 3) surprisingly (and disapointingly), the state appears ready to approve the Hi...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of June 15, 2020.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) two from the Top20% argue "don't tax me, don't tax my industry, tax middle & lower income Alaska families instead," our reaction (1:52); 2) oil prices are stabilizing and Conoco is restoring ANS production, what does that mean fo...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of June 8, 2020.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) the University's spending cuts are good, but there is much more to go (1:49); 2) while they don't directly impact us, Chevron & BP's layoffs nevertheless are an important signal to Alaska (12:39); and 3) why we think Ed Rasmuson's...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of June 1, 2020.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) now that we know the candidates, our first reaction to the upcoming election cycle (1:46); 2) oil prices are back to where they were in mid-March, what does that mean for Alaska (22:37); and 3) why a recent report from Moody's indicates that Alaska...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of May 25, 2019.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) What our focus will be with candidates as we head into the coming election season (1:45); 2) now that it has FERC approvals, where we think the #AKLNG project is headed (18:01), and 3) why ending proration doesn't mean TAPS is back up and running at...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of May 18, 2019.The Weekly Top 3 is a regular weekly segment on The Michael Dukes Show. The Show broadcasts on FacebookLive and via streaming audio from the Show's website weekdays from 6–8am. I join Michael each week on Tuesday's show, from 6:20–7am, for a discussion between the two of us abo...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of May 11, 2019.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) if it were politically achievable, how much would blocking the reverse sweep of PCE & the other designated budget items really help (1:53), 2) Bert Stedman raises the issue of borrowing from the future, but in our view this generation already has bor...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of May 4, 2019.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) what concerns us most right now about Alaska oil (1:52), 2) the emerging issue in the state CARES Act debate and what our Congressional delegation can do to help (20:09), and 3) what those involved in the "Restore the PFD" rallies need to be rea...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of April 27, 2019.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) what we've learned about the market for ANS since last week (1:50), 2) why we don't like the Begich-Parnell PFD proposal (22:50), and 3) while its still on, Alaskans still are flying blind on the BP/Hilcorp transaction, and that's not a...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of April 20, 2019.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) what happened to oil prices Monday and what does it mean for Alaska (1:52), 2) this coming election cycle will be about FY22, what does that look like (22:29), and 3) the impact COVID-19 is having on the federal fiscal situation is going to make the fu...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of April 13, 2019.This week our Top 3 are these: 1) some think its time to talk about the "death of the PFD," if so, we address the next chapter, "who lost the PFD" (1:53); 2) we discuss the negative fiscal message sent last week's by the combination of the Spring Rev F'cas...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of April 6, 2019.Because of the deep dive we do on the first, this week we only have time for 2 of our Top 3: 1) because of the oil price drop, we are down to the end game on the PFD; preserving it will require a Plan B if, as highly likely, we aren't able to achieve the level of spending cuts nece...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3  -  our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week  -  for the week of March 30, 2019.This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) the final budget passed Saturday night includes an income tax, we discuss how much and who's paying it (1:53), 2) our view on where oil prices are headed and what that means both for the state's fiscal situation and North Slope dev...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of March 23, 2019.This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) our view of the Senate budget bill passed on Monday, and more importantly, where we go from here (1:45), 2) the clearer the picture we have of the economic impact of the oil price drop and virus, the more bleak the state's long term financi...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of March 16, 2019.This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) some propose a $0 PFD, some $3K, we discuss our take on the issue (1:47); 2) the projected state revenue numbers are bad and we are operating w/o a safety net, we discuss the consequences (21:35); and 3) why we disagree, strongly, with the RCA&a...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of March 9, 2019.This week our Top 3 issues are all tied to this week’s oil price collapse: 1) the last time oil prices dropped we had $17 billion in fiscal reserves, this time we have nothing (1:59), 2) two nat’l think tanks weigh in with proposals on how to raise Alaska revenue (18:59), and 3) our fir...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of March 2, 2019.This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) Leg Finance Division's biased and inaccurate treatment of the PFD under current law is now crossing over into the media (1:56), 2) the significant impact the coronavirus-induced economic downturn is likely to have on state revenues (18:07),...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 24, 2019.This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) our concern that the Gov's current path on budget issues is leading straight to another year of deep PFD cuts (1:57), 2) SFIN's leading proposal on a spending cap doesn't do much (18:54), and 3) why the Goldman, Chase & oth...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 17, 2019.The Weekly Top 3 is a regular weekly segment on The Michael Dukes Show. The Show broadcasts on FacebookLive and via streaming audio from the Show's website weekdays from 6–8am. I join Michael each week on Tuesday's show, from 6:20–7am, for a discussion between the two of u...

The third topic of this week's Weekly Top 3 was briefly to discuss a debate that was happening Tuesday evening, after we taped the show. As we explained there, the debate, hosted by Alaska Common Ground, featured a series of mini-debates, focused on four issues: making substantial additional budget cuts, relying even more on Permanent Fund earnings, reinstating broad-based taxes, and raising...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 10, 2019.By way of background, this week Michael and I start the show by doing a brief review of the evolution of our thinking on fiscal policy these last 10 years. (2:00). Then we dive into the Top 3: 1) we take a peek behind the curtain at what "other taxes" the Gov may have in m...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of February 3, 2019.This week, before working through our Top 3, we outline presentations we made Tuesday of this week before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly (2:17). For those interested, the slide deck we use in those presentations is available on our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Then we move on to...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of January 27, 2019.This week we our Top 3 issues are these: 1) the first two big votes this session tell us already where its going to end up (2:06), along the way we also touch on the Governor's state of the state address (8:04) and Americans for Prosperity-Alaskans new ad campaign (12:01); 2) a...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 — our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week — for the week of January 20, 2019.This week we fit in four issues. We start with a brief discussion of our reaction to Monday’s appointment of the new OMB director (1:54), before turning to our our “regular” Top 3: 1) our take on the results of the PFD working group (7:59), 2) now that they appear to have the necessa...

Welcome to The Weekly Top 3 - our look at the top 3 things on our mind this week - for the week of January 13, 2019.This week our Top 3 issues are these: 1) why Alaska's fiscal situation increasingly reminds us of Brexit (1:41), 2) our nominee for the worst in the first batch of pre-filed bills (21:14), and 3) the federal deficit crosses a bad threshold we haven't seen since the middle o...