My point exactly, whatever the source, the only question is how long this may take and how it will impact our interests. The process has already started.

 

[QUOTE=ewrbasedpilot;323295]Today oil shot up $4 a bbl and briefly crossed the $100 mark again. This is going to KILL aviation unless something is done to curtail this insanity. When oil companies are raking in $40 BILLION in profits for a quarter, something is definitely wrong with the picture. At CAL, every $1 increase is another $44 MILLION off the bottom line, or over $176 MILLION off the bottom line just today!!! I hope the oil companies/speculators, and Saudi's are happy with what they're doing to everyone. I just wish our government would grow some balls (even tiny ones would help) and say enough is enough and start going after the speculators who look for every little nuance to push the price ever higher. But, since we're beholden to the middle-east and special interest groups, that will never happen and the consumer will be blamed for using too much. My guess is that "recession" will be a mild word for what's going to really be the end result. The average american can't afford to fill up their gas tank much more if this keeps up. I guess those poor people getting an "economy stimulus rebate check" are salivating while waiting for a few more dollars to fill their tank. Meanwhile, the oil people are laughing their way to the bank................. Flame away..............[/QUO



1. Why is this wrong? From 81-2001, no change in gas price. Water was more expensive. 2. Every time it falls by a $ we save 44 million!! 3. OPEC sets the price of oil. Nobody else. You're are correct though, they have us by the balls. 4. I haven't seen less cars on the road or people parking them. So obviously we're not hurting too bad. Just some thoughts. Not jabbing. Just believe the government should stay the hell out of business and let the markets work. Look what government meddling has done to the airlines, hospitals, etc. Don't ever look to a Sentator, etc. to fix your problems. They don't give a damn about you.

 

1 year of oil in ANWR? Read books, not political campaign ads. Peak Oil? Depends on who you listen too. Environmentalists said it happened in 1978, but they were wrong then as they probably are now. Try this website: www.insideautomotive.com Ed Wallace is a historian who covers the auto industry and pretty well keeps an even keel about things. He posts very relevant news stories each day. Also, he found a little nugget last week. Supply and demand you say? Our demand is increasing globally at about 1.45 times over the next few decades. Our supply (known reserves with increasing access) are growing at about 1.25 times. His take is if we use petroleum for fuel and stop making clothes and some useless plastics from it (i.e. that plastic baseball you got your nephew), then supplies increase slightly greater than projected demand. It's a competition for the resource. Plus, where exactly does aerospacepilot think electricity comes from? All the hydroelectric plants, solar cells, and windfarms contribute less than 10% to the electrical grid today. What's the price tag to increase that 12 times to supply us? Is he gonna get permisiion from CA to put ugly windmills up, considering a condor might fly into one and die? How about covering the whole state of AZ with solar farms? They won't mind a bit right? We need to find more energy resources. On this we can agree. What we don't need are the lies and distortions that lead us into fairy tale land.

 

Also, this from that right wing rag the San Francisco Chronicle.

Some counterbalance came from expectations of U.S. stock builds. JBC Energy predicted that the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration will announce gains of 2.41 million barrels of crude Thursday for the week ending Feb. 15, as well as increases in gasoline, diesel and heating oil stocks.

 

Quoted from boortzdotcom, Nealz news, 20 Feb 2008

In 2006 Exxon reported profits of $39.5 billion. Politicians went nuts. In 2007 those profits went to $40.6 billion. Politicians went nutsier.

The reason politicians can successfully demagogue these profits is that the vast majority .. and we're talking 95% and above .. of Americans couldn't tell you the difference between a profit and a profit margin if their flat screen TVs depended on it. Simply stated, profit is the total amount you make. Profit margin is how much you make on each dollar of sales. You would think that this would be taught in our government schools ... but if you did think that you would be wrong.

So ... what has been happening to Exxon's profit margin during these record profit years? Staying about the same, that's what; around 10%. The reason their profits have been increasing is because the price of crude oil has been going up ... bring gas prices up with them ... thus increasing the dollar amount of sales. Profit – up. Profit margins – 'bout the same.

By the way ... financial institutions and cosmetics companies have been enjoying higher margins ... along with many other sectors of our economy.

Now .. the numbers that I presented yesterday. Pretty eye-opening. The research was posted on the Seeking Alpha website.

Over the past three years Exxon Mobile has paid an average of $27 billion a year in taxes to the Imperial Federal Government. This has amounted to about 41% of Exxon's taxable income.

The last year for which complete numbers on who pays what taxes are available was 2004. In 2004 there were 130 million individual tax returns filed. If you take the bottom 50% of those tax returns – 65 million of them – and add up the total amount of taxes those households paid you come up with $27.4 billion. This means that one corporation, Exxon Mobile, pays as much in taxes to the federal government as do the bottom half of individual taxpayers. How's that for paying your fair share.

There's more. The Adjusted gross income for the bottom 50% of taxpayers comes out to about $922 billion. This means that these taxpayers are paying an effective tax rate of about 3% of their adjusted gross income. Exxon? Adjusted gross income of around $67.4 billion in 2006 ... for an effective tax rate of 41%.

There's the facts, my friends. If you're able to absorb them you'll see just how you're being manipulated by the likes of Hillary Clinton and other politicians. If the American voters were truly educated they couldn't get away with it for a minute.

 

And how many refineries have been closed in the last 15 to 20 years? Google it...

Someone might have put this out there... Taking too long to read the whole thread...

Supply and Demand... You can make refineries only so much more efficient.

 

[QUOTE=reCALcitrant;323862.......... Every time it falls by a $ we save 44 million!! .....[/QUOTE]

Hard to save any money when the price goes up $5 for every $1 it goes down. Our PBS givebacks for an entire year are completely wiped out for over 5000 pilots in a matter of MINUTES due to the spiraling costs of oil. Our price per bbl for crack crude was almost $120 for jetfuel! Something is definitely going on here.

 

Could it be that the man is keeping you down?

 

Wow! You don't sound like a typical Hole fan! What about your boy Johnny Edwards?? Don't think he'd agree with you.

Heres hoping the Wolfpack walk away with a win tonight!!

 

Ummm, what??