Free Republic

The New York Times Co. reported a steep drop in third-quarter profits on Thursday, the latest gloomy earnings report in an industry battered by online competition and falling print advertising revenue. The New York Times Co. said net profit fell by 51.4 percent in the third quarter to 6.5 million dollars, or five cents per share, from 13.4 million dollars, or nine cents per share, in the same period a year ago. The company, which owns About.com, The Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune and 16 other daily newspapers besides the flagship The New York Times, said overall advertising revenue fell...

GOP presidential candidate John McCain sounded more like a Democratic presidential candidate (a recurring trend) when he joined the Left’s oil industry bashers a few weeks ago. Asked by a North Carolina voter whether he supported a Jimmy Carter-era windfall profits tax, McCain responded: “Um, I don’t like obscene profits being made anywhere — and I’d be glad to look not just at the windfall profits tax — that’s not what bothers me — but we should look at any incentives that we are giving to people or industries or corporations that are distorting the market.” Here’s an idea for...

Jerry Taylor, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and Shepard Smith talk about today's oil markets. They make a good point about gas prices not rising proportionally with crude. Thank goodness for that!

WASHINGTON - Senators told oil executives Wednesday that high oil prices cannot be explained by supply and demand and the oil industry's concentration — and OPEC price collusion — is contributing to the costs facing consumers. ADVERTISEMENT Executives of the five largest oil companies were appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said there's an unexplained "disconnect" between prices — at nearly $130 a barrel — and legitimate supply and demand. "We need to get prices under control.... We can only conclude that the oil markets have failed," said Sen. Herbert Kohl, D-Wis. But Shell Oil...

AUSTIN — Maybe Texas’ transportation problems are a lot simpler to understand than recent fights over toll roads make it seem, North Texas leaders told state senators Wednesday. “My first recommendation: You need to provide a lot more revenue for transportation,” Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told the Texas Senate transportation committee. That was hardly the only suggestion from Mr. Morris or the many others who spoke to the committee, which is seeking input as it readies an approach on toll roads, TxDOT and more for the next legislative session. But it might...

Can we just stop whining about gasoline prices and oil-company profits? Do I enjoy paying $3.50 a gallon for gasoline? Of course not. I’d like it to be under $2 as it was a few years ago. I’m sure we’d all like it better if it were under $1 like the good old days. But what about those profits? Are they really that “huge”? Or “obscene”? Or “enormous”, or whatever adjective the congressional windbags and assorted crybabies are using. Let’s look at some numbers, shall we? Assume $100 per barrel for crude oil. The standard oil barrel contains 42 gallons....

One major concern I discussed a few weeks ago regarding the Trans Texas Corridor is where the land will come from. Another concern is where the money will come from. Official government websites for the TTC assure that public-private partnerships will shield the taxpayer from bearing too much of the cost burden, but a careful reading shows the door is definitely open to public funding sources, while at the same time there is no doubt of the intention to charge tolls on the road. Taxpayers already pay for their transportation system through hefty gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other...

I covered this on the Information Overload portion of the Boortz show yesterday. Web Guy and Cristina tell me that there have been hundreds of email requests to put the information here in the Nuze. Happy to oblige. The issue here is the profit figures for Exxon Mobile. This oil company has been a favorite target for leftist, anti-capitalist politicians. I'm sure you remember Hillary screeching about wanting "to take those profits" so that she could spend them. Recap: In 2006 Exxon reported profits of $39.5 billion. Politicians went nuts. In 2007 those profits went to $40.6 billion. Politicians went...

WASHINGTON - Missile technology, fighter jet parts, night vision goggles and other U.S. wartime equipment increasingly are being illegally smuggled to potential adversaries, such as China and Iran, the federal government said Thursday. Last week, two Utah men were arrested for allegedly trying to sell parts over the Internet for F-4 and F-14 fighter jets — which are only flown by Iran. The week before, two engineers were indicted in San Jose, Calif., on charges of stealing computer chip designs intended for the Chinese military.

Auditor under fire reaps big profitsFirm has been criticized for rejecting many hospital Medicare claims in state. By David Whitney - Bee Washington Bureau Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, August 3, 2007 WASHINGTON -- PRG-Schultz International, the Atlanta auditing company under fire for its sweeping rejection of claims for California Medicare patients cared for by rehabilitation hospitals, announced soaring second-quarter profits Thursday. The announcement came a day after members of the California congressional delegation met with audit overseers in a heated meeting in which they complained that PRG-Schultz's wholesale rejection of claims is enriching its bottom line while jeopardizing health...

Stock market bulls like myself were on the losing side of this week’s trading, as the Dow gave back roughly 4 percent from its 14,000 peak. The big story was a wave of high-anxiety credit fears over the value of corporate and housing loans. Credit circuits blew a fuse, lending markets temporarily froze, and a number of buyout deals were postponed as analysts and traders worked through their problems. But this is no time to lose faith. The economy has found its legs with a 3.4 percent GDP report for the second quarter — a much-needed surge from only 0.6...

The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous for people. The drug, called cefquinome, belongs to a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defenses against several serious human infections. No drug from that class has been approved in the United States for use in animals. The American Medical Association and about a dozen other health groups warned the Food and Drug Administration that giving cefquinome to animals...

In "Profit of Doom" at http://www.acton.org/blog/index.html?/archives/1525-Profit-of-Doom.html they explain: Gore is chairman of the firm and, presumably, draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. [so he is] profiting from hyping the “global warming” crisis. In a nutshell, Gore consumes large amounts of carbon-based electricity while he trumpets a growing “global warming” crisis that drives up the value of “green” companies like the ones in which he buys carbon offsets invests in their...

Dynamic Materials Corp., which sells explosion-welded clad metal plates, beat analysts' expectations when it reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2006 rose 90 percent to $6.6 million, or 54 cents per share. Dynamic is an international metalworking company. Its products, which are typically used in industrial capital projects, include explosion-welded clad metal plates and other metal fabrications for use in a variety of industries, including upstream oil and gas, oil refinery, petrochemicals, hydrometallurgy, aluminum production, shipbuilding, power generation, industrial refrigeration and similar industries. Yvon Cariou, Dynamic's president and CEO, said in a statement, "The fourth quarter was an...

Link only per FR hosted.ap.org policy:IBM Posts Big Fourth-Quarter Profit Rise

U.S. companies are about to wrap up their fourth consecutive year of spectacular profit growth, filling corporate coffers with cash and keeping the bull market alive on Wall Street. Total earnings of the blue-chip Standard & Poor's 500 companies have risen at double-digit percentage rates for 18 consecutive quarters, an unprecedented streak. But to many rank-and-file workers, the booming bottom line may only serve as a reminder of what has been missing from their own paychecks. Wages of average workers have just begun to improve in recent months after badly lagging behind inflation for most of this decade. Amid the...

Last month, Target recalled 10 of its Kool Toyz-brand play sets, citing hazards like "lead paint," "sharp points," and "puncture wound potential." The toys, which included plastic aircraft carriers, dinosaurs, and tanks, all appeared harmless enough. But according to the killjoys at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, children—at least those prone to eating plastic objects as big as their head—were at serious risk. A week later, Mattel recalled 4.4 million Polly Pocket dolls and accessories because kids were swallowing the toy's magnets. The Associated Press reported, "If more than one magnet is swallowed, they can attach to each other and...

Microsoft posted dazzling numbers for the past quarter Thursday, besting analyst expectations and its own guidance for the three big barometers: revenue, profit and earnings per share. But the big show is still to come, with the wave of major products set to launch beginning next month. With profit of $3.48 billion on sales revenue of $10.81 billion — both up 11 percent from a year ago — it was a "blissfully boring" start to Microsoft's 2007 fiscal year, said Charlie Di Bona, senior equity analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. Microsoft turned in earnings per share of 35 cents, handily...

Tesco's half-year profits top £1bn (Filed: 03/10/2006) The £1 billion profit accumulated by Tesco over just six months has drawn renewed attacks on the impact the supermarket chain is having on the environment and town centres. Britons spent an average £289 in Tesco stores Tesco said today it took £17 billion from British shoppers in the first half of its financial year, or £289 for every Briton. Profits were bolstered by the group's expansion from food products to electrical goods, insurance and even computer software. But campaigners said Tesco's success is coming at an unacceptable cost. "Tesco's booming profits are...

by Mark Finkelstein August 30, 2006 - 08:59 The Globe didn't go totally Mel Gibson's 'Passion' on us this morning. But Dan Wasserman's cartoon does show workers being hung by the hands on rising corporate profits. This was the Globe's subtle way of commenting on news it reported yesterday that wages aren't rising as fast as profits. The Globe predictably overlooks the fact pointed out in this Investor's Business Daily article that: "Most of us aren't paid just in "wages" but in wages and benefits. And when the two are put together, total compensation is up 8.7% since 2003, for...

by Mark Finkelstein July 28, 2006 - 08:27 MRC's Brent Baker has noted ABC News' hyper-ventilation over Exxon's 'breathtaking' profits. This morning it was NBC's turn. As everyone knows, the way to decrease the price of a product is . . . to raise taxes on it? As contradictory as the notion might sound, it appears to be the Today show's preferred solution to $3/gallon gas. It was the news of Exxon's $10.3 billion second-quarter profit that gaveToday the opening to air its n-th iteration of the 'soaring gas prices' story. In an innovative bit of demagoguery, Today even displayed...

Business loves profits. The public loves competition. The good news for economic matchmakers and the public alike is that the two often combine in a highly successful union. High profits encourage new businesses to enter the profitable industries, and the entrance spawns competition. This elementary piece of common sense is also an economic law that states that high profits, in general, tend to encourage competitive entry into a market. Where profits are made, in other words, competition generally follows. This is a good thing. But it's not always the case, of course.

Operating profit dropped dramatically for the broadcasting side of NBC Universal during the second quarter. In an earnings report Friday, parent company General Electric didn’t disclose a lot of detail but said that operating profit at NBC’s primetime, station and TV-production units plunged 45% from the same period last year. NBC has been hammered in the ratings, and its audience has shrunk 30% over the past two years. Ad sales at the network and its stations have followed suit. NBC’s problems were enough to offset the strong results at its sibling cable-network and movie divisions and cut profits for GE’s...

Unexpected tax revenue to shrink U.S. budget deficit By MarketWatch Last Update: 3:35 PM ET Jul 8, 2006 NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- An unexpected spike in revenue from corporate taxes, individual stock market profits and executive bonuses is curbing the projected budget deficit this year, according to a media report. The White House on Tuesday is expected to say that tax receipts are about $250 billion higher than they were a year ago, rising twice as fast as the administration forecast, the New York Times reported Saturday. As a result, the budget deficit will be about $100 billion less than...

Grand Canyon University might be a school for ultramarathoners (super marathoners) -- guys and gals who run multiple marathons in one day. I know of one race that goes from rim to rim of the Grand Canyon and back all in one day. But that is not relevant here. Sorry. Grand Canyon School was a traditional University with an annual shortfall of $12 million to $15 million as late as 2004. It broke even last year and is now turning a profit. The difference is, it was bought by a significant other -- Significant Education -- and turned into a...

Former Toyota President Shoichiro Toyoda has founded Kaiyo Academy, a $175-million school that he modeled after Britain's Eton Academy -- a school that boasts 19 British Prime Ministers among her alumni and the second-in-line to the throne, Prince William. In Japan there is dissatisfaction with the 'dumbing-down' of its curriculum. Four years ago, the government cut 30% of the workload off the elementary and junior high school curriculum. Toyota's Kaiyo academy is attractive for many reasons. 1. It is backed by Toyota. 2. It is focusing on developing kids who can do more than just pass exams. 3. It is...

eCollege provides value-added information services to the post-secondary and K-12 industries. Its customers include publicly traded fopros, community colleges, public and private universities, school districts, and state departments of education. Its mission is to help increase new enrollments and increase student retention. National University is my alma mater. It includes National University, National Polytechnic College of Engineering and Oceaneering, Spectrum Pacific Learning Company LLC, National University Virtual High School, California Medical Institute, National University International, and National University Institute. Whew! That's a lot. eCollege is committed to excellent customer service and partnership and unparalleled product division. NU is is committed...

Sakhalin Island is a remote and sparsely populated area in the farthest east section of Russia. It sits to the north of Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. Its ports freeze over part of each year because, well, it is so dang cold. But Sakhalin is where the future may lie -- at least for Russia's big oil. The island is about 600 miles long -- about the length of California but about one/fourth the size -- and there are an estimated 45 billion barrels of oil equivalent that lie beneath its seas. California probably has that much, too, but the...

Murakami Yoshiaki (that's my son's name, too...but no doubt the characters are different) faces a possible three years in prison and a fine of up to $30,000 - small change when you consider the billions he has made. Murakami is a corporate raider in a land where business is done by consensus. In the end, he admitted to inadvertently "breaking the law" by buying shares after he had "heard" that a company might be the target of a hostile takeover. Normally, this is called insider trading. But the Japanese also have a way of not saying things directly. It causes...

A modern day little red hen may not sound like or appear to be a quotable authority on economics but then some authorities aren't worth quoting. I'll be right back. About a year ago I imposed a little poetry on you. It was called "The Incredible Bread Machine" and made a lot of sense with reference to matters economic. You didn't object too much so having gotten away with it once I'm going to try again. This is a little treatise on basic economics called "The Modern little Red Hen." Once upon a time there was a little red hen...

NEW YORK (AP) -- News Corp., the globe-spanning media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch, reported that profits doubled in the latest quarter on an asset sale as well as stronger results at its Italian satellite TV company, cable networks and broadcast television businesses. News Corp. also announced that it would increase its stock repurchase program from $3 billion to $6 billion. The New York-based company, which owns the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel, newspapers in the U.K. and Australia as well as many other media businesses, earned $820 million or 27 cents per Class A share, versus $400 million...

NEW YORK, NY, United States (UPI) -- As the rising price of oil drives up oil company profits, countries where the oil is drilled, such as Bolivia, are demanding more of a cut, a report says. Bolivia, where the president authorized a national takeover of oil and gas fields and pushed up taxes, is only the most recent example. Similar moves have taken place in Russia and Venezuela, while Britain has increased its taxes and state companies in Nigeria and Kazakhstan get better treatment than private companies, The New York Times reports. Bolivia hiked its taxes on oil companies from...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on Saturday accused the Republican-led Congress of providing tax cuts to oil companies at a time when the industry enjoys record profits and many motorists struggle to deal with rising gasoline prices. In his party's weekly radio address, Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan said "gas prices keep skyrocketing, and in Washington, Republicans continue to turn a blind eye to the oil industry's activities."

Sen. Specter: Tax Oil Co. Windfall Profits The government should consider a tax on oil companies if they make excessive profits amid rising gasoline prices, a leading Republican senator said Sunday. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said a windfall profits tax, along with measures to stem concentration of market power among a few select oil companies, could offer eventual relief to consumers hurting at the gas pump. "I believe that we have allowed too many companies to get together to reduce competition," Specter said. "They get together, reduce the supply of oil, and that drives...

Continuing the media assault on profitable businesses, CBS News attacked the insurance industry for “record profits” in 2005, a year also beset by heavy hurricane damage claims. “Even while insurance companies paid out a record amount in claims after Hurricane Katrina and other storms, the industry still made more than $44 billion in profit, an almost 19-percent increase from the year before,” said CBS’s Sandra Hughes on the April 5 “Evening News,” introducing a critic of the insurance industry. “They’ve used a national disasters like 9/11, natural disasters like Katrina and phony excuses like too many lawsuits to jack up...

Profits surge to 40-year highWhen will corporations spend some of their hoard? By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch Last Update: 5:36 PM ET Mar 30, 2006 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. corporate profits have increased 21.3% in the past year and now account for the largest share of national income in 40 years, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Strong productivity gains and subdued wage growth boosted before-tax profits to 11.6% of national income in the fourth quarter of 2005, the biggest share since the summer of 1966. See full story. For all of 2005, before-tax profits totaled $1.35 trillion, up from $1.16 trillion...

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times Co. said Wednesday that it expects lower profits in the first quarter and reported uneven advertising results for February amid weakness at its New England media group, which includes The Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The company, which also publishes the International Herald Tribune and a group of regional newspapers, forecast net income of 22 cents to 24 cents per share, which includes estimated costs for job cuts of 3 cents to 4 cents per share. Excluding the charges, analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 29...

Alternative energy researchers are hoping that California voters get a chance to act on their rage against oil companies at the ballot box in November--and alternative energy companies are pointing to the initiative as the boost needed to get the industry off the ground. However, critics of a new initiative effort say the main beneficiaries would be the venture capitalists behind the campaign. The group Californians for Clean Alternative Energy is gathering signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot that would impose a tax on oil production in California. The Clean Alternative Energy Act would place a tax...

Business 2.0) - Let's not wax sentimental about our space exploits thus far. The Apollo era was heroic, but beating the Soviets to the moon never provided a compelling economic reason to return. (We didn't even get Teflon or Tang as spinoffs--both were invented before 1960.)

The latest annual earnings for ExxonMobil have shattered U.S. annual corporate-profit records. So, predictably, some politicians and pundits are back on the oil-bashing bandwagon that began rolling last fall. In his response to the president’s State of the Union Address earlier this month, Virginia’s Gov. Tim Kaine talked about how oil companies should “share in our sacrifice” by returning “excess profits.” Statements like this bear a hint of irony, since the government collects billions of dollars from U.S. oil companies and takes an average of 45.9 cents from every gallon of gasoline purchased. America’s energy companies are already providing a...

NEW YORK (AP) Newspaper publisher New York Times Co. reports earnings for the fourth quarter on Tuesday, Jan. 24. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period. EXPECTATIONS: New York Times, which also owns the Boston Globe and International Herald Tribune, said in December it expects fourth-quarter earnings of 45 cents to 47 cents per share, sharply below year-ago profit of 75 cents, due to the difficult advertising environment. Excluding costs related to job cuts, the company pegged its earnings at 59 cents to 62 cents per share. Analysts, on average, are expecting...

To begin at somewhere near the end, I am at a gas station in the small town of Calimesa in the high desert between Beverly Hills and Rancho Mirage. It's late at night, maybe 10 p.m., and it's cold. My wife and I are getting gasoline to put in our old Caddy and complete the drive home to make sure our son goes to school tomorrow. As I pay the kindly attendant, George, a man who actually greets me, checks the oil, and pats our dogs, my head is spinning and it's spitting out thoughts like a mad laser printer....

The program aims to deter Afghan farmers from poppy cultivation, and toward developing a more viable and legal source of agricultural commodity. By Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Nov. 28, 2005 - Afghan farmers in Ghazni are finding it pays to grow potatoes instead of poppies after they recently received 400,000 Afghan dollars from the Coalition Humanitarian Assistance Department. "The program is very successful. We were able to take care of farmers and to distribute food to returnees coming from Pakistan and Pakistan earthquake victims." U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert Meier The Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team met within the...

The Big Three network ad revenues (ABC, CBS, NBC) were down 21.5% for the third quarter compared with the same quarter last year and down by 8.3% year-to-date. That's according to the latest numbers from the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association. Total net revenues were $2.2 billion for the quarter, down $605 million, but that and more was accounted for by the $707 million drop in sports advertising that was almost entirely a result of the absence of the Olympic Games. Compared to the non-Olympic year of 2003, ad revs are up 4% and sports revs down only a percent....

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said Monday its earnings rose 3.8 percent in the third quarter as sales grew 10 percent. Net income rose to $2.4 billion, or 57 cents per share, for the quarter ended Oct. 31 from $2.3 billion, or 54 cents per share, a year ago. Earnings in the latest quarter included three items, including hurricane related costs, which reduced results by $80 million, or 2 cents per share. Net sales were $75.4 billion, an increase of 10.1 percent over $68.5 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2005. Other income boosted...

The facts to deliver to these RINOS 1. Understanding Supply and Demand - for Dummies Oil is a commodity with a worldwide demand. It is managed with a worldwide supply chain made possible with corporations with worldwide capabilities. Sudden changes, or major changes, or changes in the long term trends in the world demand for oil greatly affect the price of oil, and its retail products, everywhere in the world, not just the United States. If enough buyers, due to the demand they are trying to meet, are willing to bid up the prices they will pay for oil contracts,...

Nov 9, 4:29 PM EST Oil Company Execs Defend Huge Profits By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chiefs of five major oil companies defended the industry's huge profits Wednesday at a Senate hearing where they were exhorted to explain prices and assure customers they're not being gouged.There is a "growing suspicion that oil companies are taking unfair advantage," Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said, opening the hearing in a packed committee room."The oil companies owe the American people an explanation," he declared.Lee Raymond, chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp., said he recognizes that high gasoline prices...

Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business A Reason debate featuring Milton Friedman, Whole Foods’ John Mackey, and Cypress Semiconductor’s T.J. Rodgers Thirty-five years ago, Milton Friedman wrote a famous article for The New York Times Magazine whose title aptly summed up its main point: “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” The future Nobel laureate in economics had no patience for capitalists who claimed that “business is not concerned ‘merely’ with profit but also with promoting desirable ‘social’ ends; that business has a ‘social conscience’ and takes seriously its responsibilities for providing em­ployment, eliminating discrimination, avoid­ing...

Not just for profit, or not just? As the Swiss drugs company behind Tamiflu comes under pressure to allow clones, Salil Tripathi asks whether bargain-basement copies really help Friday November 4, 2005 Not all drugs are made with easily reproduced synthetic ingredients - this star anise, from China, is the principal agent in Tamiflu. Photogarph: Adrian Bradshaw/EPA The Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffman-La Roche is coming under pressure to open up its production of Tamiflu, the drug most experts think is the best hope in the fight against the dreaded H5N1 strain of bird flu. The UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has...

Huge oil profits: Good business or highway robbery? Yes 71% No 29%