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I know: It's definitely not price gouging (insult away, BTW)

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Columbo, Jul 27, 2006.

Page 2 of 14
  1. trounced

    trounced Active Member

    A company turning a profit. Darn it.
     
    trounced, Jul 27, 2006
    #13
  2. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    Since you don't have a problem with this, loan me $10 so I have enough to drive to and from work for a day or so. OK?
     
    alleyallen, Jul 27, 2006
    #14
  3. trounced

    trounced Active Member

    No, I don't have a problem with it. The prices haven't changed buying habits so why should these companies lower prices? Why am I not surprised you'd be in favor or wealth redistribution.
     
    trounced, Jul 27, 2006
    #15
  4. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    I just want you to STFU and loan me $10 so I can drive to and from work and be, y'know, a productive member of society.
     
    alleyallen, Jul 27, 2006
    #16
  5. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Changing buying habits isn't as easy as picking a different brand of bread, trounced.

    And isn't it strange that while these companies rake in billions in profits none of them are undercutting each other on the price? Why is that? Is that the free market system at work?
     
    Ace, Jul 27, 2006
    #17
  6. trounced

    trounced Active Member

    Last year they posted about 10 percent profit, which pales in comparison to pharmaceuticals (about 18 percent). Most big banks are about 20 percent. Why don't you buy some Exxon stock? Ride the wave, man, ride the wave. IBM made $2B in profits on revenues of 22B last quarter. Exxon, about 10.7 on revenues of 100B. The margins are quite similar.

    I can just imagine the screaming if Exxon sold oil and gas below market prices, resulting in a shortage.
     
    trounced, Jul 27, 2006
    #18
  7. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Is this thread going to get started every earnings quarter?

    This is a little oversimplified, but when the price of a product rises, the people who sell that product make more money. That is what is happening in the oil industry right now. The only way that happens is if people are buying the product, and guess what, they are.

    Demand for oil is incredibly high--not just in the U.S., but worldwide. Supply is incredibly constrained. Oil companies are making a lot of money from the situation, but they are not arbitrarily setting their prices extra-high. Market forces are determining the price.

    Think of this in terms of Cabbage Patch dolls instead of oil. If the doll becomes the hottest thing on earth and millions of people want one, but the company that makes the dolls can only produce thousands a day, what happens? Yup. The price of Cabbage Patch dolls goes through the roof.

    Calling for government price controls is particularly ridiculous when it comes to oil, because as big a consumer of oil as the U.S. is, we are not the only ones in the market. We're competing with Europe and China and India. You can pass a law saying that Exxon or Conoco can only profit $X in the U.S., but it would be the dumbest thing you could possibly do. The supply of oil to the country would dry up. We'd have cheap gas prices, but there wouldn't be any available.
     
    The Big Ragu, Jul 27, 2006
    #19
  8. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    No Chevron stations around here.
    Next to Exxon, Shell tends to be the most expensive.

    The no-brand stations are right around what BP and Hess charge.
     
    EStreetJoe, Jul 27, 2006
    #20
  9. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    Ragu --
    Ture or false -- (And this isn't an argument for price controls, but an honest question)

    The only people benefitting from these record profits are the insanely wealthy.

    Because I have to think that the average stockholder, the one who has a piece of Exxon in a mutual fund, is paying his/her dividends right back at the pump.

    Again, I'm not arguing for price controls (yet) but merely trying to debunk the populist myth of Exxon's windfall tide raising all boats.
     
    zeke12, Jul 27, 2006
    #21
  10. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    Buy stock? Who the hell can afford to when they're pumping so much into their gas tanks. I have a fuel-efficient car, man, and I'm still bleeding here. And my ire doesn't stop with gas and oil companies. Banks and insurance companies get my wrath, too. But what seems to evade you is the fact that this thread was about Exxon-Mobil. You want to bitch about Pfizer. Started your own f-ing thread.

    And where's my $10 for gas trounced?
     
    alleyallen, Jul 27, 2006
    #22
  11. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Zeke, yup. And those insanely wealthy people don't put gas in their cars either. Using your logic, the only thing those "insanely wealthy" people are guilty of is being... insanely wealthy. Because they don't feel it in their pocket book the way you do when they go to the pump, they somehow owe it you hand over their wealth to everyone else. If that was the economic system our country operated on, we'd be a third world country.

    One interesting thing to note. I'd also point out that many of the same hysterical voices who are claiming price fixing by the oil refiners are the same people who are apt to scream about the pharmaceutical companies raping them. Bristol-Meyers is getting hammered right now on a crappy earnings report today. Did the fat guys smoking cigars in that industry suddenly lose their pimp hands?

    Oil tends to be cyclical. When Exxon-Mobile misses an earnings mark somewhere down the line--maybe a year or two from now--what will you be saying?
     
    The Big Ragu, Jul 27, 2006
    #23
  12. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    Ragu --
    Oh, I understand that. You and I just differ on whether we think the "free" market is actually free.

    I just wanted to dispel the everybody wins mumbo jumbo that's floating around out there.
     
    zeke12, Jul 27, 2006
    #24
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