Carl Swanson wrote in crayon...
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%.
http://www.reuters.com/article/reute...22168020070504
That article is a bit misleading. Gross profit margin is not
mentioned.
Example:
In 2004 Exxon Mobil earned more money -- $25.33 billion -- than any
other company on the Fortune 500 list of largest corporations. But by
another measure of profitability, gross profit margin, it ranked No.
127.
Gross profit margin is a financial metric used to assess a firm's
financial health by revealing the proportion of money left over from
revenues after accounting for the cost of goods sold. Gross profit
margin serves as the source for paying additional expenses and future
savings.
"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.
Raw and operational costs are not taken into consideration. It would
be unrealistic to think that the cost to the refinery/oil company have
remained constant throughout this whole mess.
"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
And the costs go up at the same time.
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.
-
It is the government that wants to gouge the consumer.
-
Mitchell Holman thinks he is the greatest thing on
Usenet since Muhammed al Gore invented the Internet.
If Usenet revolves around Mitchie-Boy Holman why
won't he answer a simple question?
Who gives a rat's ass who Mitchell Holman is?