This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Don't Tax Oil Companies - Nationalize Them!
Thursday Thought - Don't Tax Oil Companies - Nationalize Them!
Courtesy of Phil of Phil's Stock World
I would like to report a crime.
Yesterday, $112M was stolen from US consumers. It will happen again today and probably tomorrow and that is on top of the $800 Million PER DAY that is being overcharged by oil companies in America alone, ACCORDING TO EXXON'S CEO.
That's right, Rex Tillerson himself just testified to Congress that "based purely on supply and demand- should be in the $60 to $70 a barrel range." The reason it’s above $100 a barrel, Tillerson explained, is due to the oil majors using futures contracts to lock in current high prices, and speculation that is engineered by the high-frequency trading of quantitative hedge funds.
Other disclosures were made in last week's testimony that may interest you:
- The average cost of producing 1 barrel of oil was $11 (THAT IS ELEVEN, NOT A TYPO!); the average price of the oil in the marketplace–$92– some 8.5 times the cost of getting the oil out of the ground.
- The profits for the big 6 oil companies was $36 billion in the year’s first quarter. A large part of the $36 billion was used to buyback shares or pay dividends to shareholders.
- The deduction for intangible drilling expenses was given to the oil industry in 1960 when a barrel was worth about $15-17. So, why do they need this favor when oil is $100 a barrel?
Clearly there is no shortage of oil, the US has 1.75Bn barrels of oil in storage, enough to offset 186 days of imports (9.4Mbd) and 60% of those imports come from Canada and Mexico, not OPEC so our 1,750 MILLION barrels of storage would offset over 500 days worth of imports from the Middle East and Africa - even if it was TOTALLY cut off.
Nonetheless, oil shot up from $95 on Tuesday to $101 this morning, costing US consumers an additional $112M per day but that's an UNDERSTATEMENT - when we buy gasoline at $4, we are paying $168 for a 42-gallon barrel and, of course, rising oil prices also impact our home energy bills and even our food. The cost, in fact is more like $250M PER DAY per $5 increase in oil - and that is just for the US. Globally we're over $1 Billion per day that is removed from consumer's pockets for each $5 over that $60-70 range that the CEO of Exxon says (under oath) is the correct price of oil.
Fortunately for Mr. Tillerson, I wasn't a US Senator because I might have said "Gee Rex, you own the reserves, you build the wells, you own the refineries and you own the gas stations - it's nice to blame HFT Bots and Hedge Funds but have you looked in the gold-plated mirror of your 1,500 square foot bathroom lately?" There used to be such a concept, under Capitalism, of an excess profits tax as well as a windfall profits tax - Big Oil's situation is a little of both but it's also something far more sinister - it's market manipulation!
Oil jumped yesterday, as it often does, on a draw-down in oil inventories which Criminal Narrators Boosting Crude play off as an indication that demand is picking up. This could not be further from truth! What CNBC, the WSJ or any kind of real journalist COULD do, in roughly 30 seconds, is LOOK at the ACTUAL EIA Report. Doing that, they would see that the net drawdown of 100,000 barrels (yes, really, 100,000 barrels is what's now causing us to pay another $112M a day, which happens to be enough money to buy another 1.1M barrels PER DAY - are you not outraged by this?) was caused by Net Imports of crude dropping from 10.62Mbd last year to 9.42Mbd this year.
Perhaps it would take more than 30 seconds to have teams from MIT and Harvard pour over this data but, if they did, they would eventually discover that the reason our inventories are down 100,000 barrels in a week is not because demand increased but because they are shipping us 1.2 Million barrels per day LESS than last year EACH DAY or (and here's where the MIT guys really come in handy) 8.4 MILLION barrels a week less oil.
That is (and I cannot emphasize this point enough) 8.4 Million barrels LESS oil PER WEEK (11.3%) being imported than this time last year, WHEN OIL WAS $67.15. $67.15 is, of course, right in Mr. Tillerson's sweet spot, the other $34 a barrel IS YOU BEING RIPPED OFF. When I say you - I mean you, me and every other US and Global citizen who consume 88 Million barrels of oil per day. That is an overcharge of $3Bn PER DAY or over $1Tn per year - JUST FOR THE OIL. Add in refining costs, home energy costs, food costs and other items and we are talking about a $2.5Tn global rip-off (See "Goldman's Global Oil Scam Passes the 50 Madoff Mark!," Fake-Out Thursday - Oil Scam Continues Unabated," and "The scam behind the rise in oil, food prices.")
While the top 10% may not care much whether a gallon of gasoline is $2 or $4 or whether our home electric bill is $300 or $500 or whether a bag of groceries is $100 or $200 - those of us in the business of selling something to consumers other than oil should be outraged! Those are OUR customers that are being robbed! That is $2.5Tn of precious discretionary spending money that they could be giving to US instead of burning it up in our customers' gas tanks.
What we need to do is organize EVERY OTHER business into a lobby to put a stop to this outrage. We are being impacted by this every day - not just in what we pay for oil-related products in our business and personal lives, but the energy sector is sucking $2.5 TRILLION dollars out of our customer's pockets every year.
That would be as much money as ALL US Corporations reported in profits last year and, if you take out the $1Tn of profits in the energy sector and $800Bn of profits in the financial sector (their partners in crime) - that leaves only $700Bn in profits for the rest of us. So, to be clear - that money is being stolen from every business owner in America because if they steal it from our clients at the gas station - they don't have it to spend when they walk into our stores!
The effect on GDP is worse because that money is being removed from the bottom of the chain and being spent on a consumable item of no lasting value (we literally buy it and burn it up). Had my customer not spent $60 for a tank of gas, they might have spent $49 for my newsletter (you can subscribe here) and then I might have taken that $49 and gone out for pizza and Kim, my waitress would have had $5 more to spend tomorrow, and Mina, the owner, would have had $30 to buy some more bread, and the baker would have had $20 to buy some wheat and flower and maybe go out for some pizza himself. OR - my customer could have burned that $45 driving back and forth to work. What do you think is better for our economy?
High oil prices give us trade imbalances, they weaken the dollar by flooding the World with them as we exchange them for oil at the rate of $1.8Bn per day or $657Bn per year. That is the ENTIRE GDP of Turkey, the 17th largest economy in the World and, keep in mind, that is just 40% of what the oil ultimately costs us as it pushes through to other items we use every day. Now my business is global so I look at the US consuming just 1/5th of the World's total and I want to cry. $3.2 Trillion a year spent on oil alone! That's 65 Million newsletter subscriptions! That's right, I'm a Capitalist so I worry about how things affect me - even when they are global tragedies that are causing hundreds millions of people to live in poverty so one man can have a 1,500 square-foot bathroom (allegedly).
And, if you think giving $45 to the gas station puts money into the economy, you are wrong. The local gas station makes very little on each transaction (it's a volume business, that's why they sell food) and half of that money goes directly overseas to pay for our imports and the other half goes to Exxon or whatever big oil company owns your gas station or supplies it.
Now, if you have a business that makes gold-plated mirrors for executive bathrooms (with the cool TV screens behind the glass) - you will be thrilled or, if you are Exxon stock you will be thrilled because XOM bought $19Bn of their own stock back in 2009 (it was a rough year for all of us) and paid out $8Bn in dividends but what they didn't pay was one penny of US taxes on $310Bn in sales.
That's right, although XOM paid $34.7Bn in taxes in 2009, that was only paid to foreign governments who know how to collect money from Big Corporations - the United States Government is either too stupid or too corrupt to tax corporations properly so a company like Exxon can do 65% of their business in the US and make 70% of their profits in the US but pay no taxes in the US. Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention - AND WE PAY THEM SUBSIDIES - so they can pollute our air and our water (anyone in Alaska or the Gulf may know what that means) and use our roads and our electrical grid and our police protection locally and our military protection globally ($1Tn a year for US to keep that up to protect Exxon's interests overseas) and we educate their employees and we fund their retirement, so Exxon doesn't have to and XOM gives us - NOTHING. Sorry, not nothing, they give us a $300Bn bill for their service.
Although I encourage you to send this post (and "like it" in Facebook and Twitter it, and whatever) - to people to make them aware of this scam - including Congresspeople and especially those turncoat Democrats who refused to vote against oil subsidies on Tuesday - I am not saying that any change in policy is going to help. This situation is too far gone, the energy industry has it's hooks too deeply in our politicians and they have WAY too much control over our daily lives. That means the logical thing to do, when faced with an out-of-control vital service that is gouging consumers and damaging our economy, our environment and working against our national interests - is to NATIONALIZE THEM.
That's right, we HAVE TO Nationalize the energy industry. Oil should no more be a profit center than water (and they are trying to privatize water, so soon you will know what a gallon of that costs too!) or air. It is necessary (some form of energy) for life in the modern World and that is why these greedy, bloated, corrupt organizations are able to hijack our economy and siphon of 50% of the planet's disposable income in order to mark up a barrel of oil (according to Exxon's own CEO) 850% and that ends up being 1,360% at the pump.
Clearly the current situation does not lead to oil companies developing safer, cleaner, renewable means of energy - they've had 100 years to do it and we're still using oil. In fact, their massive profits lead them to undermine those developments when they occur and to lobby against sensible measures like conservation or pollution controls. The oil scam is just too damned profitable and the money is too corrupting so, if the American people want to stop losing this game day in and day out - WE HAVE TO END THE GAME!
While the Big 6 oil companies may claim not to have a monopoly, they clearly have an oligopoly and prevention of a monopoly is the strongest argument in favor of nationalization of an industry. Clearly there is no price competition when Tillerson admits he can pull a barrel of oil out of the ground for an average of $11 but, by the time it gets to the refiner's door - it costs $101! Sure, you have to put it in the barrel and you have to drive the barrel to the refiner (or ship it from overseas) but that's about it. To claim that "speculators" are entirely responsible for the $90 mark-up is obvious BS.
Meanwhile, back to business. We are, of course, speculators (indirectly) in the energy market. I called a top yesterday at $99 and, so far, so wrong, but we are just making short-term covers on our long bets because - until someone does put a stop to these criminals - the scam WILL continue.
Back in December, I wrote a post (available to all subscribers on Christmas Day) called "Secret Santa's Inflation Hedges for 2011" and, in that post I said:
Gasoline prices are once again creeping up and, if you are the average family, you buy about 1,000 gallons of gas per year ($2,500) and spend another $1,500 heating your home. That’s $4,000 a year spent on energy and it’s already up over $1,000 from last year – pretty annoying, right?
XLE is the ETF for the energy market and it’s currently trading at $67.41. If you want to guard against another $1,000 increase in the price of fuel next year, buy 2 Jan 2012 $55/60 bull call spreads for $2.60 ($520) and offset that cost with the sale of 1 2013 $50 put for $4 ($400) for a total outlay of $120. If XLE simply maintains $60 for the year (11% lower), you make $880 (733%).
We're only in May but XLE is already at $74, and the Jan $55/60 bull call spread is now $4.40 ($880) and the 2013 $50 put is down to $2.60 ($260) for net $620 - up 416% and up $500 on the $120 investment so far, with another $380 expected if this trade plays out. These ridiculous, out-sized returns on speculation are why the investing class does not give a crap about the suffering inflicted on the bottom 90% by higher energy prices. We don't just buy 2 contracts, we buy 200, and we make enough money to buy a yacht and put 1,000 gallons into it for a weekend cruise. That increases demand and makes the little people pay even more for fuel, and WE MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY -Muhahaha!
If this seems fair to you - then congratulations, you are "one of us" but, if you have no way of taking an XLE bull call spread offset by selling 2013 puts short - then you are the guy whose pockets XOM is reaching into and stealing the money from on our behalf. Where do you think that $500 profit came from - it came right out of your wallet at the pump! It came out of mine too and, since you are reading this, then you are either a customer or a potential customer, so I will either teach you how to play so you can profit from the oil scam or tell you what needs to be done to put a stop to this obscenity.
Don't worry about us, we'll make money whether oil goes up or down, but let's all worry about our country and our planet, which has been taken over by bankers and commodity pushers, who have organized against us to take every penny out they can get their hands on. If all you do is read this and feel mildly upset - then you are just a mark - the kind who comes back to the con again and again until you have nothing left to lose. It's high time we stood up as a country and said - NO MORE!
Please - send this around - let's get a conversation going and make this an election-year issue. It has to stop....
Try out Phil's Stock World here >
»
- ilene's blog
- 8682 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
oh, I see. You think that the Kenyan jungle monkey Barrack Hussein Al-Obamahim would do a much better job running oil companies than reading propaganda from his teleprompter; given his recent stellar track record, i.e. looking for his long form birth certificate?
check. the " golden gimmick ".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_gimmick
and.
BREAKING!
Netanyahu Now
in USA for
False Flag ASAP!
TERROR ATTACK ON U.S. PLANNED
TO COINCIDE WITH AIPAC CONFERENCE
"Today Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was present for both the U.S. 9/11 and the U.K. 7/7 terror attacks, comes to Washington, DC, and will remain in the U.S. until late next week. The last time he visited, secret national level nuclear war games began, and four U.S. nuclear reactors had emergencies.”
Captain Eric H. May
Intelligence Editor
http://www.amfirstbooks.com/IntroPages/ToolBarTopics/Articles/Featured_A...
"$800 Million PER DAY that is being overcharged by oil companies in America alone, ACCORDING TO EXXON'S CEO. "
Who determines whether someone was overcharged? Who determines what is "fair", apart from the seller and the buyer?
"That's right, we HAVE TO Nationalize the energy industry"
Socialism never works. And it's theft too. But nice try. Now go back and read Hazlitt.
$10 bottled water in New Orleans after Katrina -- hey, it's just a buyer/seller market.
Yeah, I know, just don't buy their product. (Per Trav7777 above) You don't need water, and you don't need gasoline either. So there.
You found some parts of the article that you disagree with, or perhaps the entire thing since it does have only one premise. The position you are taking is that there is no problem? If yes, what problem with the current oil situation do you see and what are the solutions? Criticism is fine, but I'd like to see your input on the whole picture.
Who knows. You might just have the right answers rattling around right there in your very own head!
For only $10 you get a bottle of refreshing water and if you act now you also receive..
Time to think about the costs and risks associated with living where you do, did, or will.
Motivation to nurture communities and associate with others who are likely to either have bottled water or $10 to share with you in times of crisis.
As an added bonus, while you stand in awe of the destruction around you.. and the smallness you feel begins to mingle with your fear, and then your regrets, you'll find confirmation that you are not so different from the delicious bacon bbq cheeseburger you ate on the day before, and that your only real intent is to avoid the Pneumatic Hammer of Glory for one more day.
Capitalism. It's what makes dinner.
One parting shot at Exxon's resident douche-bag-in-chief...
If oil is so fucking easy and cheap to find, how come Exxon has replaced 95% of its *oil* reserves over the past 10 years. Furthermore, a good chunk of that is from a reclassification of its Oil Sands in Alberta.
In 2010, Exxon replaced 45% of the oil it produced (excluding reserves acquired via the purchase of XTO.) Exxon finds its oil on the floor of the NYSE....
exactly my point in the thread above. Bang on...the Oligopoly way and play...as ever.
no trail blazing entrepreneurship as far as the eye or the Hubble telescope can see!
Right on... I think it easier to create a public- private joint enterprise which creates a new oil company that sells oil and gas at more reasonable, but profitable levels, in addition to imposing a windfalls tax on the existing oil majors.
define "Reasonable"
Ha
"That means the logical thing to do, when faced with an out-of-control vital service that is gouging consumers and damaging our economy, our environment, and working against our national interests - is to NATIONALIZE THEM."
good god there are psychotic people in this country that think like this ilene lady? there is no such thing as overcharging for a product that is voluntarily consumed, you dumb broad. when prices are too high demand goes down until a competitor comes in or another market opens up for a better product. the reason there is not enough competitive markets in products like compressed natural gas (CNG) or more refined gas distributors is because of TOO MUCH government... GOvernment is the problem. Just like Fanny and Freddie and GOVERNMENT guarantees (and FED LIRP-to-ZIRP) CAUSED the housing bubble and crash, we need them to get OUT, ... instead morons like you are begging for MORE government to solve the problems caused by too much government
You are an idiot, and not even useful. Stop calling yourself a capitalist. You obviously are not one.
+1
Nationalize the oil companies? This is more liberal/socialist crap from ilene.
Here's an idea -
1. make it more difficult for corporations to buy off politicians
2. stop subsidizing corporations on a federal basis
3. stop the HFT
All of this can be done without nationalizing, which is a great way to ruin any company. And to the jackasses that referenced Chavez, have you ever studied oil production in Venezuela or Mexico? Any idea how inefficient they are? Venezuelan oil production has gone down by 25% since Chavez took over.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/3183417...
Crony Capitalism is not Capitalism. Get rid of the crony, not the capitalism. Socialists like ilene won't get this, though.
Moooo!
The producers (commercials) have had record short positions in place for the last several months. The specs have been the ones buying it. I'm sure the producers love being able to sell forward at this price...selling all that they are able to.
As far as either taxing, that'll just come back to us so I don't think that'll get us very far. Nationalizing?? Not sure where people think this idiotic idea is a good one...the government can run shit without wasting tons of money.
Ending subisidies to the big producers would help...Less regulations for small start-ups would be even better...anything to increase competition.
They should ask the union leaders to divide the budget and explain it to the public … but they should read the story first – here we go ….
THE TAX SYSTEM EXPLAINED IN BEER
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using, and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important – they didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
by - David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.
All pay 20 percent tax if you make over $20,000 The State and the Federal can fight it out on that amount and leave us alone we paid already no matter what.
And why were they going out for beers you ask? well, turns out they were all part of the same shit-shoveling firm. The first four (the poorest) shoveled the shit and were the least paid. The next five preformed various other functions- shit paperwork, shit procurement and distribution, and so on. The tenth man sat by the pool all day and got blowjobs from the other men's whore daughters.
And when that tenth man left, to go live on Coolie Island, the other 9 could not pay as much for their beers, so the bar owner was force to reduce prices.
It worked out okay in the end though, because with the tenth man, who added absolutely no value to the shit shoveling enterprise, gone, they found that they now were each able to double their own salaries.
Christ! Where did all the commies come from?
Can't we go back to having the occasional sacrificial Keynesian instead of these loonies?
and the unicorn came down from heaven and granted them each three wishes.
How many billions in taxes er.. fees does the gobmint collect just for the privilege of looking for oil?
Sigh. The problem, as usual, is the concentration of power in the hands of a few. Obviously, nationalizing the industry would not make that problem any better (possibliy worse). The problem is one of economies of scale. Since oil is relatively scarce, and requires large operations to distribute it, the natural tendancy in the free market is for these concentrations of power to intensify.
The only way to decentralize energy is to tax the shit out of it. Make it stupidly expensive and people and business will be forced to take their energy security into their own hands- i.e. generate their own power. Painful to get to short term, but afterwards there is no need for oil company power, big government energy policy, or involvement in the middle east.
So, essentially the exact opposite is what we need. Tax them. Tax them to high heaven, and let them drive up the price.
The only way to decentralize energy is to tax the shit out of it.
Er no that's incorrect fukface. The way you decentralise energy is the free market, lots of small companies allowed to operate which right now, the protection racket called the US Govt, does not allow.
The US is one huge oil reserve, bigger than Saudi. The bottleneck to that oil is the US Govt who have banned exploration everywhere, banned operating licenses, banned oil refinaries (none built since the 70's) etc etc. The US is the most corrupt oil market in the world and the US Govt a vast protection racket for huge diseased dinosaur oil companies like Exxona nd Chevron
Tax does nothing productive, it destroys wealth, increases prices and impoverishes consumers and citizens. No tax is good, every tax is shit. There, more lessons for you than you learnt in a decade of State education. Suck it up
Oh, I see, cuntbreath, so your solution is what exactly? regulation? status quo? More resources for the five oil companies to access? What fucking brain-washed moron you are.
THe whole point is to use the destructive power of taxes to break up the oil cartels, and free us from oil addiction.
Fucking shill
It's amusing and sad to hear people talk about oil cartels or Big Oil, as if it meant something. Upthread it was noted that Exxon is an international company. You might be able to nationalize a small piece of it, but most of their capital is deployed overseas. The refinery business is unprofitable, and Exxon would probably pay you to take it off their hands provided the government discharged and held them harmless when Exxon's refinery staff walked out the front gate. They've already exited the retail gas station business. Most pipelines are owned and operated by "midstream" players. Tank trucks that deliver fuel to gas stations are owned and operated by independent haulers. Ditto home heating fuel dealers. Exxon allows them to use the brand, but that's true of McDonald's franchisees, too.
More importantly, among the Big Five only three are U.S. companies -- Exxon, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips.
Nor do the 'Big Five' dominate much of anything in the U.S. or anywhere else. If you add up the market share of domestic independents like Suncor, Marathon, Hess, Anadarko, Devon, Tesoro, Kinder Morgan, Noble, EOG, Valero, Mariner, El Paso, Chesapeake, Plains, Flint Hills, Holly, Husky, Continental, Encana and a couple hundred others -- they produce and sell more U.S. oil & gas and refined products than the so called 'majors.' There are thousands of independent drillers, service companies, engineering firms, wholesalers, and retailers.
Worse: the Big Five control 10% of the world's proved reserves. Guess who owns the rest? - government monopolies (NOCs).
If you want to nationalize something in the oil business to knock down prices, start with Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch -- the institutional oil broker/traders playing with Uncle Sugar's Zirp.
Theopco
the only thing protecting the big oil cartels is.... wait for it.... Government
you don't break up oil cartels by "destructive taxation" because ...wait for it.... Govenrment is the problem (protection racket) so feeding it more tax just multiplies the problem
... who do you think keeps alive all monopolists? ...it is your 'saviour', Govt. The existence of monopolists co-exists with their protection racket, Govt. All monoplists like Big Oil depend on taxation from productive people to fund their security system, Govt, to stop smaller competitors through legislation, bans on exploring, bans on drilling, bans or withdrawel of licenses from competition, regulation of competition.
Big, fat, slow, dumb, useless monopolists would not exist in a free market. Competition kills them
The best protection is the free (competitive) market. Got it?
I see another problem being the "fungible nature" of oil. What is taken from the ground in the U. S. is sold on the open world market at prevailing prices (rigged or otherwise). Is it just me, or why can't U. S. originated oil just stay a property of the U. S.? Or is that nationalization by any other name? This is not my specialty so you'll forgive my naivete.
I won't bore you with all the ins and outs and what have yous of mineral ownership. Suffice to say that most 'US Oil' doesn't belong to the 'US' any more than your living room belongs to the US. It is private property.
yes.. and if other countries start doing the same then the US can always send in the troops.
Again? ...or still?
Hey, if we could get that futures market thingy right (you know, only those who only produce/use the greasy stuff) we might have a chance at some stability.
In reality, the crude oil produced state-side stay basically stays here. The US exports refined products produced from imported crude, mainly to Mexico.
Maybe they could be rolled into the Post Office ?
It costs a couple of dollars to ship a DVD across US by using USPS, it costs $10 to ship it FedEx or UPS. I can also ship 70lbs box via USPS across USA that' ll get there in 3-5 days. If I did it via FedEX or UPS, it would take 10 days and I would need a bank loan to ship it.
People who don't use USPS, have no idea how much more efficient and less expensive it is compared to FedEx and UPS.
How much does it cost the taxpayers?
$1.71 on the DVD at 2 ounce First Class package rate.
$10.95 on the medium flat rate Priority Rate box.
Media Mail rates for books, magazines, any recorded media, is very low.
Biggest bargain in shipping going for sure.
I shipped a clutch and pressure plate that I sold on eBay from my 1966 Chevelle in a med. box -- and it weighed in at 52 pounds. Beat that by any other method.
This is the stupidest fucking article I have ever read.
you don't like their products, DON'T USE THEM.
Oh I see. The simple citizen has a choice...like buying off the shelf in a convenience store...Energy is an Oligopolistic game. The consumer buys what the Oligarchy offers and at it's price. Period. When we see big swings in the market, its a result of Oligarchic wars, in a system which is totally opaque and only functions to criteria that the TPTB dictate. A market like that is now the mirror image of what is happening in the assets market of WS, as all over on a global basis. It's all interlinked. Oligopoly play and sham manipulation. WS is now a replica of what the OIL world has ALWAYS been. Wake up and get the sense of geo political history right.
I was wondering when you were going to show up with your typical strawman bullshit
And the Pentagon does what? Not like they have options. Isn't oil and its associated products one the the military's biggest expenses?
I assume you'll at least agree that subsidies is a goofy idea for a profitable company -- oil or otherwise?
And how about some equitable taxing scheme for the oil companies? What ideas do you have on that? You are more knowledgeable than I on these matters so I respect your input.
How about subsidies for GE, Google, Microsoft? They make huge profits and pay less taxes than the oil companies. Exxon paid $28 billion in taxes the past four years.
wow ! great idea ! i'd love to have that 12cent/gallon gasoline like they do in Venezuela. Maybe if I didn't have to pay so much for gasoline, I could save money for my retirement .
Then I take it you're making plans to move there?
But. Their profits are the Nations.
edit: I did not omit an apostrophe.
I had this thought about nationalization yesterday while listening to a radio story about the failed bill to eliminate tax breaks. We already use our military to secure foreign oil fields for private companies.
Maybe the solution is to stop going to war instead of seizing assets of US citizens. Who do you think owns Exxon, Chevron etc? Millions of citizens through mutual and pension funds.
High on the list of most moronic suggestions I've heard in the last few years. Anyone else notice what happened when goverments nationalized oil in the 1970's? Yeah, the price went through the roof. Why? Because goverments suck off all the profits for political use and fail to properly reinvest back into exploration. And of course these companies will just stand still while we steal their shareholders money right. Sure, no problem. Oil is priced at the margin on a worldwide basis. We use 2 million less barrels a day than we did 5 years ago, western europe uses 3 million less than they did 20 years ago. Doesn't make the slightest bit of difference as long as use is exploding in China and the developing world. But don't worry, we'll never run out of oil. The price will get so high it will be cheaper to use some other type of energy.
ZH needs a Junk Button for the actual articles.
ilene would no longer get published then
Great. The government does so many things so well, gee let's add the energy sector to the list. Yeah right. Maybe Amtrak and the new national oil company can share business strategies. I agree that something needs to be done about Big Oil but if I wanted to be in a country that nationalizes industries I would move to Chavez's utopia.
We could triple the workforce at the oil rigs, let one blow up every year, and still make a huge profit in the oil industry. How possibly could the US screw up this big of a cash cow?