Friday, October 28, 2005
Embarassment of Riches
I need some help from my astute readership (all two or three of you). Why are the oil companies making out like bandits? If the price of a barrel of oil from a foreign supplier goes up, aren't they paying the higher price too? Their internal cost to refine and distribute that oil hasn't changed. If a refinery gets beat to hell by a hurricane, I see how basic supply and demand would cause the price to increase. However I don't understand how this loss in refining capacity equals windfall profits? Anyone have any ideas about what's going on here?
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2 comments:
So you're saying that the logical next step is the nationalization of the oil industry? I don't think so. However, the more I read about this, it smells increasingly like there's some collusion going on at the highest levels.
I mentioned nationalization because that's what eventually happened in Russia. As for the "gesture to the public" that you suggested, do you support a windfall profits tax as suggested today by some Democrats?
And as for the "no remorse" that you mention in the first comment, the oil companies would tell you that they've seen hard times too. I think that's a bunch of shit and it certainly hasn't occurred in the last five years.
I don't think an oil company has gone broke since W. was running it.
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