Oil companies post Huge Profits!

[JimH52]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_oil

Let's elect another oil man as President again, please. Why can't george go hold hands with his Saudi daddy again and sweet talk him into lower crude costs?

 

[Toro]

Good for the oil companies, I say.

 

[cbi0090]

17 Billion, between the whole group? Chump change, to the national oil concerns, who actually control the prices.

 

[Gunny]

17 Billion, between the whole group? Chump change, to the national oil concerns, who actually control the prices.

It's misleading, but then, what's new?

Most of the price of a gallon of gas goes to taxes, not to oil companies. If the government was THAT concerned, they'd cut their profit.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/1139.html

 

[Larkinn]

It's misleading, but then, what's new?

Most of the price of a gallon of gas goes to taxes, not to oil companies. If the government was THAT concerned, they'd cut their profit.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/1139.html

Anything more recent? I think gas prices have increased just a wee bit since '05.

 

[Gunny]

Anything more recent? I think gas prices have increased just a wee bit since '05.

Yes they have, but nothing more recent that I found.

 

[Paulie]

Gas "prices" haven't gone up. Your money's value has gone down.

But let's just blame the oil companies for profitting. I mean, they run a business, they should be LOSING money, right?

I hate the price of gas just as much as the next guy, but I know where the blame lies, and it's not the oil companies. In a time when your dollar is becoming less and less valuable, you'd be making as many dollars as you could too if you were in business. Some of you here ARE in business for yourselves, and you know exactly what I mean.

If the value of the dollar went back up, the price of gas would come back down. That wouldn't have anything to do with oil companies. Some of you need to start realizing where the blame lies: Deficit spending, taking on massive debt, and over-inflation of the money supply. What's that got to do with oil companies?

Or is it OPEC's fault? Because they won't raise production and ease prices? Yes, they should take their main export, the export that is responsible for their entire countrys' livelihoods, and offer that export at a price that suits OUR needs the best.

I'd love to see some of your reactions if China told us we better start selling them steel at a better price, or they'll bomb us.

 

[Paulie]

It's misleading, but then, what's new?

Most of the price of a gallon of gas goes to taxes, not to oil companies. If the government was THAT concerned, they'd cut their profit.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/1139.html

Weren't you just on the -blame the oil companies- bandwagon only a month or two ago?

 

[TopGunna]

Gas "prices" haven't gone up. Your money's value has gone down.

But let's just blame the oil companies for profitting. I mean, they run a business, they should be LOSING money, right?

I hate the price of gas just as much as the next guy, but I know where the blame lies, and it's not the oil companies. In a time when your dollar is becoming less and less valuable, you'd be making as many dollars as you could too if you were in business. Some of you here ARE in business for yourselves, and you know exactly what I mean.

If the value of the dollar went back up, the price of gas would come back down. That wouldn't have anything to do with oil companies. Some of you need to start realizing where the blame lies: Deficit spending, taking on massive debt, and over-inflation of the money supply. What's that got to do with oil companies?

Or is it OPEC's fault? Because they won't raise production and ease prices? Yes, they should take their main export, the export that is responsible for their entire countrys' livelihoods, and offer that export at a price that suits OUR needs the best.

I'd love to see some of your reactions if China told us we better start selling them steel at a better price, or they'll bomb us.

Couldn't agree more. The oil companies are the easy scapegoat since their nominal profits are increasing while the average joe is spending more at the pump. But as Paultics pointed out, the story doesn't end there.

I still think that America's inelastic demand for oil plays a key role in the prices (I still fill up my tank every week). But the declining value of the dollar is obviously having an impact, as Paulitics and Toro have pointed out before.

 

[Larkinn]

Gas "prices" haven't gone up. Your money's value has gone down.

No, actually, prices have gone up. Even accounting for the decline of the dollar does not explain the massive increase in gas prices over the last few years.

But let's just blame the oil companies for profitting. I mean, they run a business, they should be LOSING money, right?

Nobody is blaming them for profiting. People are blaming them for reporting record profits while the price of gas is hurting the economy.

I hate the price of gas just as much as the next guy, but I know where the blame lies, and it's not the oil companies. In a time when your dollar is becoming less and less valuable, you'd be making as many dollars as you could too if you were in business. Some of you here ARE in business for yourselves, and you know exactly what I mean.

Right. The oil companies sure are struggling. What was their profit...$17 billion or something?

If the value of the dollar went back up, the price of gas would come back down. That wouldn't have anything to do with oil companies. Some of you need to start realizing where the blame lies: Deficit spending, taking on massive debt, and over-inflation of the money supply. What's that got to do with oil companies?

Surely those things are related to it, but that is most definitely NOT a full explanation.

Or is it OPEC's fault? Because they won't raise production and ease prices? Yes, they should take their main export, the export that is responsible for their entire countrys' livelihoods, and offer that export at a price that suits OUR needs the best.

No, its not OPEC's fault.

 

[Paulie]

Larkinn, a price is only a set amount of something to be traded for something else. It costs more dollars to buy a gallon of gas, but accounting for inflation, it doesn't cost anymore than it did 50 years ago. You can still use the same amount of gold now, that was used 50 years ago, and buy the same amount of gas...or oil, what have you. Gold hasn't lost any value, and neither has oil. Dollars have, because they're only paper, and they're only backed by faith.

The fault lies within our monetary policy. We purposefully devalue our dollar to keep debt cheap, and people borrowing and spending, because that's how our economy is strengthened now that we hardly produce and export anything anymore. WE lose purchasing power every single day because with a fiat monetary system, the only way to maintain it's hegemony is to inflate. If they deflated now, it would definitely be worse than one could even imagine...certainly worse than the great depression, because during the GD, people were willing to bust their ass for a dollar. Now, people would rather let the government pay their bills instead of busting their ass to pay their OWN bills.

Account for inflation when you look at oil company profits, and you'll see that it isn't much different from what they were making decades ago. We just have a desire to find a scapegoat in our problems, and seeing oil companies pulling in billions makes them an easy target. Would you prefer those businesses to be in the red? It's easy to say that they should cut profits and offer us gas at cheaper prices, but how long could they actually do that before they went belly up? Would YOU take losses in a business that you owned to help your community? Even if you personally answer 'yes' to that, how many MORE people are complaining about oil company profits that WOULDN'T take losses themselves?

We're going to go the way of the Babylonians, the Romans, the Ottomans, and every other empire in history. It's just a matter of when. Downfalls of empires are always attributed to economic collapses due to irresponsible policies of printing money at will, and inflating and deflating until the citizenry can not sustain itself any longer under the system. Then, eventually, as all of them have, they end up going on military escapades and looting the wealth and resources of other nations when they no longer have enough of their own. Sound familiar?

Gas prices right now are a friggin MICROCOSM of our problems.

 

[AllieBaba]

And don't forget the idiotic practice of increasing the minimum wage.

 

[Larkinn]

Larkinn, a price is only a set amount of something to be traded for something else. It costs more dollars to buy a gallon of gas, but accounting for inflation, it doesn't cost anymore than it did 50 years ago.

Incorrect. As of 2 years ago gasoline (adjusted for inflation) was 50% more than it was in 1950. It has increased MUCH faster than inflation since then.

http://oregonstate.edu/cla/polisci/faculty-research/sahr/gasoline_prices.pdf

You can still use the same amount of gold now, that was used 50 years ago, and buy the same amount of gas...or oil, what have you. Gold hasn't lost any value, and neither has oil. Dollars have, because they're only paper, and they're only backed by faith.

No, actually oil and gold have both gained value. This is NOT due solely to the falling dollar. How can you tell? Because gasoline has increased in price all across Europe, despite the fact that the Euro is doing quite well.

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/18/781155.aspx

Account for inflation when you look at oil company profits, and you'll see that it isn't much different from what they were making decades ago.

We just have a desire to find a scapegoat in our problems, and seeing oil companies pulling in billions makes them an easy target. Would you prefer those businesses to be in the red? It's easy to say that they should cut profits and offer us gas at cheaper prices, but how long could they actually do that before they went belly up? Would YOU take losses in a business that you owned to help your community? Even if you personally answer 'yes' to that, how many MORE people are complaining about oil company profits that WOULDN'T take losses themselves?

Who is talking about making them lose money? You realize that there is $17 billion before they go from profit to loss, right?

 

[AllieBaba]

I love the stupidity of people who think the oil problem will be solved by anything other than increasing the amount of oil available.

 

[manifold]

I love the stupidity of people who think the oil problem will be solved by anything other than increasing the amount of oil available.

Really???

You don't think non oil dependent technologies might help just a tiny bit?

 

[AllieBaba]

I think nuclear energy was a viable option in the 80s, before everyone started panicking about THAT.

We need oil. Energy is the rock upon which progress stands. You knock that rock out, you are devolving.

I think when we have a shortage, it's idiotic not to use what we have before we start using our FOOD SUPPLY and embarking on nutcase theories to provide "alternative" energy.

 

[Uknow_me72]

I am just going to throw this out there but....

What if there really is no shortage of energy?

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Incorrect. As of 2 years ago gasoline (adjusted for inflation) was 50% more than it was in 1950. It has increased MUCH faster than inflation since then.

http://oregonstate.edu/cla/polisci/faculty-research/sahr/gasoline_prices.pdf

No, actually oil and gold have both gained value. This is NOT due solely to the falling dollar. How can you tell? Because gasoline has increased in price all across Europe, despite the fact that the Euro is doing quite well.

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/18/781155.aspx

Couple points here--

* Most charts that purport to adjust for inflation are taking government numbers at face value, even though the official CPI numbers are way off. They changed the way inflation is counted in the early 80's and again in the mid 90's.

* Most central banks all over the world are matching or exceeding the rate of monetary expansion by the federal reserve. Yes, the euro is looking strong--but only in comparison to the dollar. I would probably look like an olympic athlete if I stood next to a cancer patient.

That's not to say that increased demand from china and india aren't playing a factor of course.

 

[Toro]

I am just going to throw this out there but....

What if there really is no shortage of energy?

There is no shortage of energy. It is estimated that there are 4 trillion barrels of oil in the world.

What there is a shortage of is cheap, accessible energy.

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

There's a shortage of cheap, accessible, easily portable energy.