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Not Sir Phobos
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Come one Come all! Take your seats while the bull$hit begins

Post by Not Sir Phobos »

Are you ready for this? Gas companies are raking in cash and posting the highest profits ever! But it's all justifiable, they are totally innocent, right? It has absolutely nothing to do with the current gouging happening.

Read this article and get the first spoonfull of spin that the execs are feeding us:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9970294/
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lys
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Post by lys »

Good stuff NSP.

Here are some of the highlights from the article:

"Raymond said he could not confirm the specific price increase"
-Although they may be old rich men, I am pretty sure the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company knows exactly how much profit his company is making at any given time.

"It’s important that the private sector be good corporate citizens and invest in the energy infrastructure and support those who are in need.” - Spokesperson for the White House.

- I am pretty sure that statement contradicts every good business school motto. :P



On a side note I have been particularly enjoying the recent BP oil commercials in which they commend themselves on trying to find alternatives to their cash cow, oil. X|
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Post by kymaera »

Not that I believe their stories, but it does bring up a good point about profits
and how they are measured: percentage or net $$.

If they decide to maintain a 7% profit and they bought and resold $100 billion
worth of gas last year, they would make $7 billion.

This year, the price of gas basically doubled. So, if they bought and resold
the same amount of gas, it would now cost $200 billion and their profit would
still be 7%, but now that's also doubled to $14 billion since it's based on the
buying price.

I doubt that it's the only reason for the profit increases as we all know price
gouging and other shady stuff has been going on to some degree. And it
doesn't make the record profits right as they should recognize this and
adjust their profit % down to compensate.
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zerospace
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Post by zerospace »

lys wrote:On a side note I have been particularly enjoying the recent BP oil commercials in which they commend themselves on trying to find alternatives to their cash cow, oil. X|
Nyaaaahh - yes! I've seen those as well :P

I also particularly love the statements like profits go up and down from year to year... well NO kidding!! :P You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. What I'd like to know is if they typically surge 80-some-odd percent from one quarter to the next, etc, etc.

These execs must really think we're all stupid... :x
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Post by Chi »

Their oil company profits are much higher, but not enough to make a huge dent in gas prices at the pump. The price per gallon might drop 5-10% if they made no extra profit, but no business does that.

I've never heard of an employee turning down a raise so customers could have lower prices either.

Facts below. The most recent quarter was about 10B net profit.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=XOM
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