Posted on 03/20/2008 10:23:35 PM PDT by kellynla
No Shiite!LOL
Add 50 cents/gal tax— that will solve everything.
Well Hillary and Nobama, here ya are! A nice fat juicy campaign issue to prove that the people are being gouged. And for that matter, Pelosi and Waxman can start hearings tomorrow! Happy happy joy joy.
Is this April 1st ???
Not counting road taxes, the state of CA collects $0.25 to $0.28 per gallon in sales taxes for which all they have to do is collect it.
They don’t have to rfine it, sell it, store or transport it. Talk about windfall!
The refineries have to pay high prices for oil to refine. It makes no sense for refineries to pay high prices for oil only to build inventory at a time when demand is softening. Buy curtailing production they will also decrease the demand for oil and help drive oil prices down. Refinery margins are very thin and they make money not from the price of oil or gas, but from volume on the difference between the two.
All of this is a good sign. It means we are buying less gas, which is the only way prices are going to eventually come down.
This is just the free market working.
WTF?
If crude is a cost and their margins are DOWN, they must not be raising their prices as fast as OPEC. How EEEEEVVIIIILLLL.
Short crude.
Good, cogent common sense. Well expressed. Thanks!
Somewhere along the line the oil companys are still making there billions in profit. You can bet on it.
“NEW YORK (Reuters) — Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual profit in U.S. history Thursday, even though fourth-quarter earnings fell on lower natural gas prices and shrinking gasoline margins.
For the year, Exxon Mobil earned $39.5 billion, up from its previous record $36.1 billion in 2005.”
February 1 2007
http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/01/news/companies/exxonmobil/index.htm
Have the Fed build refineries.
Just as we own airports,stadiums and hospitals for the public good.
The fact is that gasoline demand is relatively inelastic, to a point. But when you are paying $150 to fill up the suburban, or $100 to fill up the old pickup, eventually you will see a decrease in demand. This has happened much slower because after the 70’s oil “shortages” fleet mpg averages went way higher. Therefore, even after oil broke 2 bucks, people were still paying much less of their inflation adjusted income to fillup. Even now, I remember my Pontiac Catalina got about 8-10 mpg. I was filling that car up every 200 miles. Now a similar car will get close to 20 mpg on the highway. Therefore it is using half the number of gallons to go the same mileage. So when gas was a buck a gallon you paid 20 bucks to go 200 miles. Now that its 3-4 bucks you are paying 30-40 bucks to go 200 miles. However from the 70’s to now, the dollar is probably worth .25 to .33 what it was then. So inflation and mileage adjusted you are still paying less, unless of course you own a Jeep grand cherokee which gets 13mpg. Still more than the equivalent car from the early 70’s.
The other factor is that our leaders, especially that moron Carter stoked the fears of the public and caused a massive cut in driving and the economy. Who else out there remembers odd-even rationing and gasless Sundays. I remember driving during the second energy crisis on a Sunday and seeing the empty highways. The country virtually shutdown on Sundays. This was really good for the restaurant business.
Now, there is a built in tolerance and acceptance of commodity gyrations in the psyche of the American public. They just don’t get as rattled as they once did. Obviously what we are seeing here is a decrease in driving, perhaps as much as 10 percent. This reverberates throughout the entire distribution system. Can you spell oil price krash?
Another theory, and just a theory, what if Iran and Venezuela and perhaps several other countries, to wreak a little economic havoc, sold dollars short, bought oil long, bought Euros long and did this in enormous quantities. This play for the past three years has been a winner for everyone. The number of oil futures contracts on the markets has expanded exponentially during the past three years, about 64 times according to one estimate. Consumption, worldwide peaked in 2006 and has been decreasing. This is purely a result of decrease in consumption. The demand in India and other developing countries is much more elastic than in developed countries.
So now, we have these rogue countries, economically attacking us and driving oil to $110 bucks, even in the face of decreasing demand. But all of a sudden, humongous sales of oil and purchases of dollars take place, oops, there could be several countries that find themselves in bankruptcy very quickly. Just a theory that bears watching.
One of the Cost of Goods Sold. Accounting 101. Costs go up... margins go down. So simple, even a liberal should understand.
I remember the Carter gas lines. So does my brother. He was so pissed off that he put a 1,000 undergraound gasoline tank next to his garage. Almost 30 years later, he calls a distributor and has it filled up. The only time he goes into a gas station is on long trips when he can’t fuel up at home.
I don’t think the feds build stadiums and airports. And the hospitals they build, well, I wouldn’t want to be in a VA Hospital.
Private ownership and competition is better.
Maybe Hill & BHO can propose a 50 cent ATM transaction tax.
I prefer to call it "price gouging".....
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