"Carl Swanson" wrote in message
et...
VRWC Destruction Machine wrote:
"OneTwoThree" wrote in crayon...

"George Grapman" wrote in message
. net...
wrote:
On Wed, 2 Apr 2008 09:42:25 -0800, "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.

Bull****

http://www.gaspricewatch.com/usgastaxes.asp

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../MNU7VU217.DTL



The oil company executives contended that their record profits last
year were in line with other industries, noting that oil and gas
companies earned an average of 8.3 cents per dollar of sales, compared
with 7.8 cents per dollar for the Dow Jones average.

the story is sadly lacking in analysis. for example, is that 8.3 cents
the net profit? let's say it is. what was the net a year ago? two years
ago?

Curious George doesn't analyze anything. He just goes off on knee jerk
rants.

I am guessing but confident that the oil company net has no where near
increased at the rate that the retail price of gasoline has, or more
accurately, at the rate that the cost of a barrel of oil has.

Crude and taxes affect gasoline prices. Profit margins haven't changed
much in the last few years.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...1/b3934114.htm




The biggest profit-margin gains came in two comparatively low-margin
sectors: energy and materials, which continue to benefit from supersized
jumps in oil and commodity prices. Oil prices hanging above $50 per barrel
and the world's insatiable appetite for energy pushed the profit margin
for that industry up to 9.1%, from 7.5% for the first quarter of 2004.
Total earnings surged 50% over the period. Materials companies did energy
one better: Higher metal and timber prices led margins to widen by 2.6
percentage points, to 6.3%, as profits jumped 103%.


very good reading, as is usually the case with business week - however - the
article is close to 3 years old.

hey wait - I thought the economy was in the toilet 3 years ago. that's what
the leftist anti Bush loons were saying, anyway.....




http://www.reuters.com/article/reute...22168020070504


this one year old Reuters article is pretty shallow on the face of it. it is
speculative, and gives no indication as to the basis of the speculation.






"The profit outlook is incredible, the refinery margins are significantly
higher than last year or the past three years," Fadel Gheit, an analyst
with Oppenheimer& Co., told Reuters.

"It would be safe to say that if margins don't collapse from here, the
refiners will probably do 20 to 30 percent higher profits this year than
last year," added Gheit


In all the posts in this thread no one has presented any proof the oil
companies are gouging. Government makes twice the profit margin on a
gallon of gas than the oil companies themselves. Good luck in having
the Feds investigate the gouging done by government.
-