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Supply and Demand?
Supply and Demand?
Here we go again. ExxonMobil’s profit report for the third quarter of 2008 is out. Are you ready for this? The bastards made $14,830,000,000 IN PROFITS for THREE MONTHS!!!!
Again, that’s PROFIT, not gross income. That’s how much money they put in the pockets AFTER ALL THE BILLS WERE PAID!
14,830,000,000. That’s billion, with a "B"!
That comes out to:
$161,195, 650 per day,
$6,716,485 per hour
$111,941 per minute
$1,865 a second
Profit.
Now, tell me again that there’s no price gouging here.
Tell me again how petroleum prices would come down if big oil was given carte blanche to drill in our national parks and just off our shores.
Tell me. I’m listening. I‘m not BELIEVING, but I’m listening!
While folks in this country are worried about how they’re going to afford to drive to work or heat their homes this winter, these good, honest folks at ExxonMobil are making almost $2000 a second profit!
About a month ago, I was paying $4.30 a gallon for regular unleaded because, supposedly, there was more demand for the product than there was actual product.
You know what? I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t believe it now.
What makes me paranoid about corporate greed? Oh, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the little issue of a one-trillion-dollar bailout for Wall Street firms and investment banks that We, The People had to cough up after the CEO's of these firms decimated our credit, our retirement funds and our national economy.
Now, ExxonMobil posts record profits at a time when, supposedly, what they are selling is in short supply? Sorry. I don’t believe it.
How can a potential hurricane threat to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico have an effect on gas prices BEFORE THE FREAKING STORM EVEN HITS? This market is not driven by supply and demand; it is driven by speculators and by Big Oil itself.
I’d like to see the figures of how many gallons of gasoline and oil were sold to public during the third quarter of 2008 and compare that figure to how much was sold a year ago during the same time period. I’ll bet you ten to one that the 2008 figure is higher than the 2007 figure. If that’s the case, where’s the shortage?
Recently, gas prices have begun to drop, and they are continuing to do so. Why? Because, with the global economy taking a nose dive during the past few weeks, the consumption figures have dropped. OPEC panicked at this and decided to cut their daily production of oil by 1.5 million barrels a day.
If the principals of Supply and Demand were in effect, that action would have caused oil and gas prices to sky-rocket. In fact, just the opposite occured. The day after the OPEC announcement, oil prices dropped by over four dollars a barrel, and they have continued to slide ever since!
The price you pay at the pump or at your furnace has nothing to do with supply. It has EVERYTHING to do with SPECULATION of demand. (Not demand itself, but speculation.) How much are you willing to pay for the stuff? What will the market bear?
If we, as consumers, continue to cut back on our gas and oil consumption, prices will continue to drop, no matter how much of the stuff OPEC pulls out of the ground and ExxonMobil refines.
If we go back to our old levels of consumption, I guarantee you that prices will soar again almost immediately.
This isn’t the law of supply and demand.
This is the law of corporate greed.
Amazing, huh?
posted on Oct 31, 2008 6:06 AM ()
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Very well put.
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I did not comment yesterday on the events that transpired during the election. It was simply too hard for me to get out of bed.
Today… I wear black.
I mourn for the impending death of the U.S. military might.
I mourn for the ultimate destruction of our economy through socialization.
I mourn for the elimination of the free market system in the health care industry.
I mourn for the death of the ideal that mediocrity is NOT ok, and the slow elimination of what is left of the American work ethic.
My only solace is that on January 21st, I can go ahead and quit my job, live off the public cash, get my house paid for, my food, my cable bill, and gas for my car. And the only thing I will have to do is abandon any sense of dignity that I have and teach my children that it’s better to receive than to give. That it is more prosperous to NOT care about developing yourself, your skills, or your mind; than it is to live like a sloth and let other people who are “foolish†enough to work hard take care of you.
I can’t wait.
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OK, now that I'm done with that... Jim....
Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim Jim...
Why you tryin' to kill me?
First, we have an oil surplus at this point. Surplus. So drilling locations do not have any immediate impact on ANYTHING. That statement about drilling locations was made for the long term. Domestic dependency on oil is exactly what we need to reduce the overall costs.
There are about a hundred different factors for why we are paying low at the pump now. Not the least of which was the election. Look back over the last 20 years... gas prices ALWAYS drop around election time.
As far as the profit that Exxon is making... so what? They are making the greatest amount of profit that the market will absorb. THAT is not only the duty, but the flipping DREAM of any business. Gas companies do not prey on people the way cigarette companies do. They are not selling a vice. They are producing and selling a necessity. Are you ranting because you're JEALOUS of it? Or because they are good at it? They don't drive the prices up... they don't have to. As you stated, the companies themselves don't have that much to do with price setting. It is based on commodities speculation.
If you're THAT upset with how much money they are making, ask yourself, "would I like to own an oil company?" You're damn right you would.
Get angry with how little of a percentage they are donating to charity. Get angry with how little of a percentage they are using to set up scholarship programs or medical research. But for crying out loud, don't get mad becuase they are really good at what they do. That is the ESSENCE of the free market system. A system that took a big hit on Tuesday with the election of a completely unknown, woefully underqualified man who is pointing us in a direction that will destroy the Capitalist economy that VALUES people and companies who are good at what they do.