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

BTE don't try to interject logic or sense.
That will get you no where.

 

If you fight to get in line for $3.99 gas when it's across the street for $4.09, you're flipping out over a dime.
Period.

 

It will NEVER get back to $2.99. Not in the USA. The era of cheap gas is over.

 

This story made my day, not the spike in accidents, but this part:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25695376

. .Since the average price of gasoline hit about $3.25 a gallon early this year, bike sales have skyrocketed, the National Bicycle Dealers Association reported. Store owners across the country say two-wheelers are flying out the door faster than they can stock them.

. . .Experts welcome the trend for all of the reasons you might expect: Transportation planners like that fewer cars clog the nation’s highways. Environmental activists like that fewer tons of greenhouse emissions are pumped into the atmosphere every rush hour. Doctors like to see more people pedaling off more pounds.

. . .“I believe in the future that cycling is going to not be just a trend, but a way of life for a lot of people,” said Gene Wells, owner of Fat Tire Cycle in Buckhannon, W.Va

 

Please, BTE, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Planned Parenthood made $115 million last year. $115 million! Who cares that that's also the budget for oil exec's Christmas bonuses. Let's please focus on the percentages.

 

Maybe I am optimistic, and I know I am naive, but with all the $2.99 gas guarantee promotions going on, I gotta think Detroit believes it will drop back below $2.99 again as I find it hard to believe they would lock themselves into paying the difference for the forseeable future. Again, I am oversimplifying here, I am sure, so somebody please tell me why I'm wrong.

 

I had no idea what you were talking about in terms of Planned Parenthood until I scrolled up. I should have known.

 

If you look at the basic cause and effect of high oil prices, I don't see any major changes in the short term. Value of the dollar, supply and demand, demand surge in China/India, OPEC, instability in the Middle East, etc.

I could see the price plateau, but a huge drop? I just don't see why -- and for the more cynical, why "they" would let -- that happen.

 

Fine. But your little two-owner, privately held company doesn't have to divvy out shares of its profit to 6,000,000 shareholders, either.

 

Are you not aware of the massive stock buy back programs by oil companies?

This is from Oct. 07, but it doesn't make it any less relevant.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=akIQ2arQB4Qs&refer=columnist_pauly

 

That doesn't change anything. Someone who has the money to invest 5 million dollars expects to have a bigger capital gain than someone who invests 5,000.

Unless, like a good liberal, you only want to penalize the successful.

As things stand right now, anyone can purchase shares of publicly traded stocks -- which certainly include the oil companies. And if the companies are trying to buy back the shares, that can only increase the price for the investors.

 

Do you make yourself dizzy when you make these arguments?

First you say pity the poor oil company who has to divy up stocks. Then when it's pointed out that they buy back their stocks (which they have to divy which makes them different from small two-owner private companies), you say that doesn't matter because they're allowed.

So you acknowledge the fact that it doesn't matter that they have to divy up their stocks, but you maintain that supports your argument that having to divy up stocks puts them at a disadvantage.

My head hurts just typing out your logic.