The big lie: How the oil companies are ripping us off

Good read in Portfolio from Howell Raines on the oil companies.
Some nuggets:

Lots more. Pretty interesting stuff.
http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/media/2008/07/16/Criticism-of-Medias-Energy-Coverage

If one of the board's leading lights can explain what is wrong with the article, I'd like to see it.

 

Another key point that's missed in the oil discussion is that they re-invest their profits in their own stock, rather than in new exploration, building new refineries, etc.

 

That was in the article too.

 

$5 billion to $25 billion? damn!

 

The media is doing a poor job reporting on a complex issue!?!

 

Damn liberal media anyway

 

Of course Howell Raines has all the credibility in the world (jaysonblair).

 

Damn the messenger!!! Past mistakes mean he can never be correct about anything again!!!

 

And in a 1,200 person newsroom, the executive editor must be absolutely sure of what each one of his 100 or so GA reporters is doing all the time.
It wasn't like Raines had editors underneath him at the time, on wait, maybe it was seven or eight editing layers before Blair would get to Raines.

 

That article is damn good.

I would recommend everyone pay attention to Page 3.

I'd copy and paste the whole thing, but people that do that annoy me.

 

Let's play a little game, here. Name the companies below.

Profitability
Profit Margin (ttm): 14.23%
Operating Margin (ttm): 23.80%

Profitability
Profit Margin (ttm): 10.85%
Operating Margin (ttm): 16.45%

Profitability
Profit Margin (ttm): 8.35%
Operating Margin (ttm): 11.40%

Profitability
Profit Margin (ttm): 38.92%
Operating Margin (ttm): 17.64%

 

I'm guessing at least one of those is a newspaper company that recently had major layoffs.