At Least Gas Prices are Down

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I predicted low gas prices pre-election six months ago. The cost of gas isn’t an issue anymore with consumers and voters.

BUT these kinds of profits will be an issue. We may never see quarterly profits like this again and a new President will have an easy target on taxing BIG OIL. This level of profit and wealth transfer is an easy mark. Talk about walking around with a bull’s-eye on one’s back.

0 thoughts on “At Least Gas Prices are Down”

  1. The oil companies should not be bashed for their profits- punishing them with higher taxes is also a bad idea. With oil field output predicted to fall by an annual rate of 9% ( http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0830883c-a55b-11dd-b4f5-000077b07658.html ), it is imperative that oil companies continue to invest in new exploration/oil recovery techniques (while the government should at the same time provide incentives for companies to work on alternative fuels/energy sources), otherwise “peak oil” will hit us before we know it. If we add extra “windfall” taxes on their profits, we take away the incentive for them to reinvest billions into vital technologies that may slow down the predicted output decline. The profits will come down with the price of oil.

  2. James, I was going to mention the taxes they paid but you beat me to the punch. Folks, just keep the driving miles down and the gas prices will stay “reasonable”.

  3. Ted,
    I am disappointed in you. You know how to read an interprete a balance sheet. Here are the highlights of the Exxon Quarter:
    They their net income after taxes was 14.8 Billion on 137.7 Billion in revenue or 10.8%.
    Their net income before taxes was 26.1 billion or they paid 43.3% in income taxes. So the government took 43.3% of the wealth Exxon Created. That part is never mentioned in the news reports also that they paid 9.3 Billion in sales taxes and other taxes of $11.8 Billion or total taxes of $32.5 Billion in total taxes. so for making $14.8 Billion in profits they had the privilege of paying 32.5 Billion Dollars in taxes of one kind or another. source http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/news_release_earnings3q08.pdf

    Compare that to Microsoft – 15.1 billion in revenue and 4.4 billion in net income or 28% profit to revenue.
    source http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY09/earn_rel_q1_09.mspx

    That is the rest of the story.

    Half baked reporting like in the article you linked to is why news organizations show their incompetence, bias and why they are going out of business While they play into the hysteria that the democrats who want to steal from the rich to give to the poor are trying to whip up over this.