"George Grapman" wrote in message
. net...
SteveB wrote:
The oil companies make 8 cents a gallon. Various governments tax it over
a dollar a gallon. Do the math, you ****ing genius.

Steve
So why do the companies show record profits?

Simple math, George. you claim to watch and read several business sources.
Do you actually read the numbers?

Here is a simple example.

Product X sells for 1 dollar and costs 80 cents, leaving the seller a 20
cent profit. due to circumstances, the cost of product X doubles to 1 dollar
60 cents. the seller also ups their profit from 20 cents to 30 cents,
selling the product for 1 dollar 90 cents.( which is actually a drop in the
net from 20 percent to 16 percent.

but the number reported is 30 cents versus 20 cents. profits are " up" arent
they.

actually most profits are also reported in terms of profit per share of
stock. so the analysis requires some more detailed analysis.

but in general, what you read in the paper or hear on the one liner news
reports is completely misleading.



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