Exxon reported second quarter profits of $11.5 billion, while General Motor Corportation reported a $15 billion loss during the same period. It's an all-time hight profit for a single quarter. GM's loss is its third largest for a single quarter and includes $3 billion in employee contract buyouts.
Initial analysis of what the big oil companies do when they record such high profits (Shell Oil reported over $11 billion in profit, as well) is to reinvest in their company. They just buy their own stock and watch it go up. Meanwhile, we hear from the big oil PR people about how invested the companies are in research for alternative fuels and leaving less of a carbon footprint. I'm not buying it. Whatever they're investing in such research is, quite literally, a drop out of every barrell.
Anybody who knows anything about the subject can tell you the U.S. has had a deflated price on gasoline for years. It was bound to catch up to the world market price, but most people didn't expect it to happen so fast. It's still not as expensive as it is in Europe.
So, with full knowledge of this, the U.S. auto makers went on a collision course of economic destiny by pursuing the marketing and sale of big trucks and sport utility vehicles.
There is no conspiracy, but the big oil companies didn't do the auto makers who pursued this philosophy any favors, either. The big loser is the consumer, of course. Americans are suckers for a big, comfortable, safe and reliable vehicle.
The price of gasoline is tapering a little bit, but it's not going to fall as rapidly as it rose and it won't decrease by the same degree, either.
If you think about it, there was no other way for this to play out. Just when consumers were beginning to realize the impracticality of the big vehicles, the price of light sweet crude became the speculative game of the week for Wall Street and everyone driving those big large vehicles was saddled with the exhorbitant cost of gasoline.
The situation was predicted by many of us back when the trend to larger and less fuel-efficient vehicles became popular. It wasn't a difficult assumption to make.
The realization of it has come hard to some people, however. Now we've got people calling for more oil wells in this country and the Arctic. The Russians are making a military presence felt in the region to establish territorial rights to the largest untapped oil fields left on the planet.
Many people may not realize this scenario has been written about by several authors who foresaw the struggle to control oil production as the root system for the next global military confrontation: WW III. Doesn't sound too far-fetched with the Russian navy establishing a military presence in the Arctic Circle. Not to my mind, anyway.
It may be a long way off. It may happen next week. It may never happen, but it's certainly a plausible course of events. If you don't believe me, research it on your own.
The best thing for everyone in this country to do right now, is to work on conserving. If we work at it, we'll save some money for ourselves. The Wall Street fat cats aren't going to donate any of their profits for subsidization of our fuel bills.
Try to car pool. Try to combine trips out in the car. Walk. Use public transportation.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Personally I'm quite happy to see these profits as it benefits my stock price and pays me dividends. Of course I don't own the oil company I'm just one of the lowly people who have money invested in the stock so I can benefit from my investments. Millions of people are invested in oil stocks and have benefited with the price of oil going up(by the way the oil isn't owned by the oil companies).
For those of you that want cheaper oil prices you should have heeded back in the 70's when the warnings were being fired off that the price of oil will eventually sky rocket if we allow ourselves to be held over a barrel by the member nations of OPEC. We have allowed government to dictate policy and as such they have tied our hands to benefit the very nations which has launched terrorism attacks on our nation. I guess one could say that government is part of the reason why 9/11 occurred and trying to dispute this is a foregone conclusion, granted each individual is responsible for their actions but our elected leaders set up the scenario as lain out on that faithful day.
We as a nation have to become energy independent and the policy of our government has been quite the opposite for many years not just the Bush administration. To allow ourselves to be held hostage to a foreign power is breaking the oath of office on so many Constitutional levels which should be reason enough to replace every incumbent up for election, impeach those not up for election and file charges against the two mainstream political party candidates for treasonous acts against the United States.
Post a Comment