Oh come on!
Stop goosestepping for at least one day in your life.
If demand had dropped as prices increased, profits would NOT have increased. Instead they exploded. Gouging pure and simple.
Anyways, I do NOT support any anti-gouging bills. I do believe Americans will only change their ways only after repeatedly getting screwed.
Agreed. This whole process is a waste of time. Does anyone realize that the oil companies only make on average 7.7 cents on the dollar? As a percentage, the government is taking way more then that out of your pocket when you go to the pump. In NY, you're paying 63 cents to the state/feds for every gallon of gas. Even in NJ, which has one of the lowest rates in the country, they're taking out 33 cents/gl.
Add on top of that the fact that Uncle Sam is already getting their 35% from the corporations come April, and all this talk of "windfall" profit tax is just another way of them saying, "Give us more." All this because somehow the money that oil companies make is considered "socially unacceptable." In the stock run-up of the late 90's, you didn't see people calling for extra taxation of all the big investment banks (whose profit margins are generally > 7.7%) who were making tons of cash. Somehow, that money was ok.
Absolutely agree. The gall! It's incredible most Amercians just take this crap and swallow it!
So you're saying people simply stopped driving or delivering goods or powering the machines they need for work? Basic indeed.
The consumption of gas is more elastic than most people think and the US is quite spoiled when it comes to cheap gas.
Gas went to 3 dollars a gallon and several things happened
1. more people are riding the bus
2. families combined trips and used the more fuel effecient vehicle
3. suv sales collapsed
4. high mpg vehicles got a sales boost.
5, increase carpooling
All in all there was pretty decent dip in gasoline usage in this country. As the refinanies have come back online increased supply has brought down the price of gas.
meanwhile all of you wanted gas to stay at the current price at 2/gallon with 30% of refining capacity at the peak of hurrican mess. Like it or not that would been lots of gas stations without gas if that were to have happened.
I am saying people became more effecient with their transportation. People did in fact drive less and use less fuel. The stats back this up.
OMG, this is word for word right out of the GOP Talking points on their website.
Like I said I would rather see the stations out of gas than price gouging.
And everything stated can be backed up. These are facts. I challedge you to disprove anything i stated. But I know you cant do it.
Unless it's OPEC before congress, it's all pointless. This is merely saber rattling from Congress, and it amounts at the end of the day to nothing. Other than Joe Blow citizen will say,
Joe: "Hey Bill, did you see that Congress had big Oil sweating behind a desk today?"
Bill: "O Rly?"
Joe: "Hey Bill, did you see that Congress had big Oil sweating behind a desk today?"
Bill: "O Rly?"
halik
Lifer
- Oct 10, 2000
- 25,696
- 1
- 0
"word for word right out of GOP.."
---so you have no comback for that, huh? It's not right wing rhetoric, they call that ECONOMICS.
Also unless ALL gas stations started price gouging, it doesn't work. When i saw a gas station charing rediculous amounts, I drove around the block where there was a gas station with normal prices. Believe it or not, there is competition between gas stations and now especially with all those price monitoring sites, it's even more pronounced.
Exactly. Gas is not exactly a luxury item. It is really more of a necessity for most people. Their demand is need based, not want based. Supply and demand works a little differently under those circumstances. It's not like we're talking about xbox 360's here. We're talking about the thing that millions of people NEED and DEPEND on to get to make a living every day.
THe only thing yo forget is that is with about 30% of refining capacity and prices kept at say $2/gallon those people that needed gas to get work would not be able to get it. And the market forces did show that there gasoline market is far more elastic than you claim it to be. With high gas prices people opted to use less gas.
WTF are you smoking?
Exxon Mobil Profit Soars 75%
By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 2005; Page D01
High prices for crude oil, gasoline and natural gas helped Exxon Mobil Corp. to its highest-ever quarterly profit, $9.92 billion, up 75 percent from the third quarter last year, the company said yesterday.
LINK
They had record setting profits.
charrison your suppose to put the gas in machines and cars, not drink it. It kills the brain cells son, it kills the brain cells. Now if wanna kill yourself, don't fVck around with it, do it expeditionously, go on and jump.
You have little sympathy despite the fact that this oil baron has admitted raising prices to earn more profit?
People continued buying fuel at their usual rate. The poor simply took money away from other things, such as food.
Well, there are good many things that people here are not looking at correctly.
1. Yes, it's legal to make a profit. It's legal to profit at whatever margin you want. 20000%? Sure, why not. Law of supply and demand works, don't mess with it.
2. Yes, we use too much oil. Our waste is rediculous, and we need to change our ways.
3. No, it's not alright, because oil industry is an oligopoly. Law of supply and demand only works, when it's free-market. Not a market controlled by few. When market is cornerd or controlled, things gets whacky.
With those 3 things, add up the fact that government is in bed with corporations and majority of the consumer who are ignorant, you end up with our energy problem of today. I suspect these senate hearings are nothing but side-show. It'll accomplish NOTHING, other than reassuring consumers that things are getting taken care of.
As a note, I still find it baffling, that price of gas is 200% of 1-2 years ago. Did the demand surge 200% in 1-2 years? I'm certain that we're pumping at least the same amount of oil, so it can't be that supply is falling.
1. Yes, it's legal to make a profit. It's legal to profit at whatever margin you want. 20000%? Sure, why not. Law of supply and demand works, don't mess with it.
2. Yes, we use too much oil. Our waste is rediculous, and we need to change our ways.
3. No, it's not alright, because oil industry is an oligopoly. Law of supply and demand only works, when it's free-market. Not a market controlled by few. When market is cornerd or controlled, things gets whacky.
With those 3 things, add up the fact that government is in bed with corporations and majority of the consumer who are ignorant, you end up with our energy problem of today. I suspect these senate hearings are nothing but side-show. It'll accomplish NOTHING, other than reassuring consumers that things are getting taken care of.
As a note, I still find it baffling, that price of gas is 200% of 1-2 years ago. Did the demand surge 200% in 1-2 years? I'm certain that we're pumping at least the same amount of oil, so it can't be that supply is falling.
glenn1
Lifer
- Sep 6, 2000
- 25,383
- 1,013
- 126
They did. To the shareholders. $5 billion in stock buybacks plus a hefty dividend hike for XOM.
I hope that everyone in here screaming "price gouging" got hit hard, you're providing another example of how easy it is to make money off the gullible (I guess the oil companies learned that you must like being fvcked when you nonchalantly bent over and accepted gas taxes of $.35-.60/gal for years without complaining). It's people like you who are funding my retirement. Couple that with the new bankruptcy laws and soon I'll be able to buy a lightly used SUV one of you dumbasses bought a couple years ago, but at a far reduced Sheriff's Sale price.
Yeah funny how that point got left out. . .Point being that decline in usage was not commensurate or inversely proportional with the increase in price. If raising the price to $3+/gallon really caused people to use proportionally less gas then the loss in gas buying customers would have offset the insane profit margin and the profit curve would have remained relatively flat compared to previous quarters. That didn't happen. The profit spiked. That means raising the cost did not cause a decline in demand because the demand for gas is mostly based on NEED not WANT. And the people who NEED it most are the people who can least afford to pay the increased prices.
Maybe you missed the news article recently where Exxon Mobil posted the single largest corporate quarterly profit of ANY corporation in history to date? How is that below average? Maybe you missed the article about the congressional inquisition of the oil barrons that is going on right now because of it. . I mean it's only the topic of this thread.
Yes, if there had ever been an actual shortage for more than like a week, that might have happened. The thing is though, Katrina didn't really cause all that much damage at all to the oil platforms or refineries. They made it through relatively unscathed and got back up and running pretty quickly. . .
$.02 increase in dividend payout between 2/8/05 and 5/11/05. From 5/11/05 to 11/8/05 it has remained unchanged.
Yahoo finance XOM dividend history
Dividend and Yield 1.16 (2.00%)
Not that that is a bad dividend but where is the BIG dividend hike you mentioned?
It does look like XOM has been a good long term investment over the years and the dividend has grown steadily but I don't see any big dividend spike that happened concurrent with this huge profit spike.
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