LAist: Congress Proposes Mega Tax to Oil Companies

jrb

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:11:50 -0800

"you are a potential candidate for an online business 100 class for university of phoenix. maybe even devry." Well golly gee wizz nick It don't take a hell of a lot of yer fancy book larnin' to know when you're getting screwed. If the oil commodities market is as unregulated as you say, then I'd bet money that oil companies are manipulating it for their own financial gain. So I have to ask nick, was this another Republican, "smaller govt., we can trust industry to police themselves", brain fart?

PantheonZeus

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:33:39 -0800

show of hands! anybody else coasting to work on fumes ?

nicksm

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:24:22 -0800

i said institution investors, not public sector investors (although they are included in institutional) - i also included hedge funds and investment banks. there are other players involved too. i said the commodities future markets do not have a governing body. you are a potential candidate for an online business 100 class for university of phoenix. maybe even devry.

jrb

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:20:55 -0800

"... prices are high because institutional investors..." Yes nick, I'm sure public sector investors are the only people driving up the price of a barrel of crude. The oil companies themselves have no motivation in driving up the price of a barrel of crude do they? And as you say they aren't regulated by the SEC. Yea, I trust them! And amcalis, of course you're right. Maybe if we don't tax them the price of gasoline WON"T go up. (cough cough) "you sound rabid." Yea I tend do that when I smell a good ENRONing.

amcallis

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:40:51 -0800

The companies will just pass the cost of the tax onto consumers the same way cell phone companies pass on their phone line taxes. The only way to truly reduce your gas expense is to get out of the car and onto a bike or public transit. @jrb: calm down, you sound rabid.

nicksm

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:02:34 -0800

jrb - prices are high because institutional investors (ie public employee retirement funds) hedge funds and investment banks are placing enormous sums of money in the oil/commodities futures markets - which is not governed by any US oversight similar to the SEC. these are the same people who drove up real estate prices, the same people who drove up the dot-com stock prices, etc. bubbles burst - there is simply no shortage of oil. last i checked, there were short lines at the stations and plenty of fuel in the pumps. we have more than enough supply inside the US borders for years to come. this is only speculation (even OPEC is stating as such) that is feeding the market and speculators always return their gains in the freemarkets.

jrb

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:13:16 -0800

tornhuevos28 you are a typical, naive, deluded, free market worshiping, fool. You actually think that taxing these rich greedy bastards is the problem. The problem is giving them too much power. But people like you will continue to do so and will continue to bend over for them you entire lives. Wake up dufus! They'll never let you into their country clubs unless you're one of the ones serving them their dinner, oe their drinks, or wiping their dainty asses. Then you can be sure you'll be entering and leaving by way of the service door. You're an insect to them. The only time you're of any value is when you're buying into a load of crap peddled by the small change grifters that they hire for pennies, to write the laws that will yield them the big dollars. So keep maxing out your credit card filling your tank with their good old $4.50 a gallon gas (and rising). They own the credit card companies too. When they raise your interest rates so high that you can only make the interest payments, they'll have you right where they want you. Enslaved!

tornadoes28

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:52:05 -0800

Stupid idea. If they have a windfall tax on the oil companies, will they be able to tax the foreign owned oil companies. Certainly they wont be able to have a windfall tax on the foreign state owned companies. So therefore this stupid tax only takes money away from the American oil companies thereby reducing their competitiveness with the foreign oil companies. Stupid typical liberal idea that actually goes against all standard basic economic rules. All democrats really need to go back to school and take an Economic 101 class.

jrb

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:08:51 -0800

"tax the gains from hedge funds and institutional investors - that is the reason for the outlandish prices." I agree. "this is a bubble - all will soon return to normal." I disagree. The prices will remain as high as their peak price even after the bubble bursts. If these greedy bastards can sell gasoline at this price, they will continue to regardless of how low the price of a barrel goes.

nicksm

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:35:33 -0800

tax the gains from hedge funds and institutional investors - that is the reason for the outlandish prices. this is a bubble - all will soon return to normal.