What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

ldm — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:23:40 GMT

"Big Oil" explores, finds resources, drills, refines, and gets their products to market. Not only does "Big Government" produce absolutely nothing, they even hinder "Big Oil's" efforts to produce, thus creating artificial shortages. Since "Big Government" profits from the efforts of all oil companies, not just Exxon Mobil, what is Big Government's take every second?

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

Jackye Chan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:15:19 GMT

The price of oil has increased because of inflation. That's what happens when the Federal Reserve keeps expanding the money supply instead of contracting it along with the economy. Until we can take back this country's money-supply, we will never be able to take back this country, period.

Let's look at the boom/bust of the 1990's. If a circus came to town and increased a restaurant's business then that restaurant may add on another wing, and hire more full-time employees. That's a boom. "All is well until the circus pulls up stakes and moves to another town, leaving our restaurant owner with surplus staff and capacity and exposing a malinvestment that must now be unwound. This is the bust.

So the bust had to occur to correct for the malinvestments of the false boom that preceded it. Had the increased patronage been the result of a real increase in the town's population, the expansion would have been economically justified and the bust unnecessary. It is only because the owner misinterpreted the economic signals that there had to be a false boom and a corrective bust. Had the owner tried to prevent the recession by keeping the additional workers on and the new wing open, he would have been looking at bankruptcy. The recession was necessary to restore balance and maintain the viability of the business.

To summarize, the Federal Reserve turned the concept of the elastic money supply on its head by expanding the money supply indefinitely. When the economy expands, the Fed expands the money supply, and then when the economy contracts, it expands the money supply even faster, in an effort to stimulate spending to offset those contractions. It's like a heroin addict trying to kick the habit who shoots up each time any withdrawal symptoms set in. It is a painless way to go, but one unlikely to produce a healthy outcome," Peter D. Schiff, Crash Proof.

The Feds quit publishing M3 in 2005. This is the only indicator of the true extent of government-created inflation.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

Gary J Collins — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:30:56 GMT

So Exxon makes 8% profit. They could get better returns on some Government bonds which are offering about 10% at the moment and a lot less risk. But then global unemployment would be far higher if they were to take that path. Exxon is a global employer. Think also of the other supply companies that they purchase from.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission can only look at the futures markets that it has jurisdiction over and that is not any market that trades outside the USA. Trading by hedge funds etc are mainly carried out using the Dubai loop hole and cannot be checked by it. I find it strange that there is no evidence to suggest that there was no manipulation to the markets when in August 2007 all commodities suddenly rose in price. That was when the effects of the credit crunch first took effect. As the stock markets went down the commodities markets went up in proportion.

Global warming is a fact, but then the planet is coming out of a cold period usually referred to as the last mini ice age. The latest data I have seen on this is that the warming trend had slowed and that the temperature increases of the last century have been wiped out since 1998. How much of this temperature rise has been man made I suspect very little. I do know we need more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not less, if we are to feed the increased global population. The optimum level of carbon dioxide for food crops is about 4 times what is currently available to the plants.

One way to reduce the demand for oil is to demand that the car manufacturers produce vehicles that get a greater millage for every gallon used. There is supposed to be a 300 mile per gallon carburetor been developed but suppressed but the industry. Also question do you really need that great V8 engine giving about 8 mpg just to go to the shops.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

RickW — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:43:15 GMT

In figures that I can comprehend here in Canada, the average Canadian salary is earned by the average CEO, a day-and-a-half into the the New Year.

Imagine making an entire year's wages before the hangover is completely gone from the New Year's bash!

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

longnow — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:43:34 GMT

Who the hell says that climate change is solely caused by man?

No one. To say that man is the sole cause is meaningless

and I think it might be a way of saying that Mercola doesn't

believe that the degree of climate change that is happening

IS mainly caused by man. Can that be true and is that what

he is saying?

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

webwitch6 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:16:19 GMT

And all the oil companies will now turn to putting up wind farms and profiting off those. The only way to combat the BIG companies is to start millions of little companies and no one can afford to do that.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

joyz — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:05:52 GMT

Thank you, Dr. Mercola, for presenting a more balanced view of this situation. Too many of us are prone to jump to conclusions without knowing the facts. I think people have been too quick to point fingers at companies such as Exxon, without taking into consideration other pertinent factors.

[Please do not use name, or sign as "Faith." Thank you.]

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

MBM_203 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:02:48 GMT

Its somewhat funny to be commenting on energy matters on this forum.

I will say that competitive private industry such as the oil companies are much more efficient, perhaps a hundred fold, than a government agency could be. To nationalize the oil industry would be disasterous for the US's energy needs, and most of Congress is smart enough not to let that happen.

Venuzuela nationalized Mobil Oil's refining business about 45 years ago, and now they and Mexico national oil company - Pemex - are in big trouble with aging infrastructure and inefficiency. The USA is Venzuela's main market for their heavy sour crude which takes special refining to process. Iran's government has to import gasoline into their country because they cannot meet the needs of their people due to the lack of refining capacity. You would think they would build a refinery instead of uranium enriching equipment.

Greed is a human trait - not a company trait. There are also greedy, inefficient bureacrats holding on to their jobs in government just as there are greedy individuals in any business. The advantage private industry has is that it can purge those inefficient elements within the organization mush easier, while it is next to impossible to purge government of lazy, inefficient, incompetent employees. Under the "Peter Principle" those inefficient employees are promoted to their level of incompetence as supervisors, department heads, etc. Consequently, the whole department becomes inefficient - the hardworking and competent people realize the situation and leave to find jobs elsewhere while the lazy are incompetent are left behind.

When the price of gold hit $1000 an ounce should the evil gold mining companies haved incurred a windfall profit tax or been nationalized? Actually, if left alone and at that price many more people companies start looking for gold. It is the same with the oil business. In this country there are perhaps thousands of small oil drilling companies who now out there in Tennessee, Kentucky, Colorado, Texas, etc with their venture capital looking for that big deposit of oil.

If alternative sources of energy are viable without inefficient government subsidies the free market will flow in that direction. Mobil spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing solar energy, uranium mining and coal mining back in the 1970's and 1980's. Mobil Solar Energy Inc was the leading solar energy company in the USA and perhaps world back then. Those businesses lost money and were sold to others since those energy sources could not compete with crude oil which, when refinied, is nearly 100% pure golden energy. However, at today's crude prices alternate sources of energy are now becoming attractive.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

deepgreenmoss — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:38:44 GMT

The biggest factor here, the BIGGEST factor, is that all these foreign profits rely on killing formerly autonomous people to secure the oil within theri borders. When does the price of oil reflect the thousands upon thousands of tortured, maimed, destroyed lives? Put that into your profit margin. Plus, when you count in the billions of dollars the American taxpayers spend on a war machine to prop up these so-called profits, I woudl say those so-called profits accruing to shareholders are being heavily subsidized by the American taxpayer. That's not free market. That's engineered by a military-industrial complex tha thas to feed it's own tail.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

AKgem — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:12:50 GMT

In 1989, those of us who had jobs in the AK fishing industry had to drop our jobs and income to clean up our state from the nasty, gooey oil that Exxon poured into our water. It destroyed thousands of miles of beach, thousands of animals dead, and WE cleaned it. Ever try to CLEAN a beach of spilled oil? Watch oil slicked animals die? Exxon employees should have cleaned it. STILL, they do not pay any of us for cleaning it. STILL they tell the court they shouldn't have to. Thousands of us STOPPED working to clean, lost our income because of it. Some of us are owed THOUSANDS, and others owed tens of thousands. We were told we would be reimbursed for our losses, (not our animals and land), and we will never see it. Never. Exxon is so stinking rich I just assume the courts have been bought off. Don't know what else to think. Why not just pay up the way they should have at the beginning. OR CLEANED UP THEIR OWN MESS. Makes me sick to know they all have fat pockets, but show zero thanks to the people who did the cleaning. We brought a goo ball of oil on our boat the size of a basketball, months later. We are still being damaged from Exxon. Pick up a rock on some beaches and you can still find oil. Wish the entire country would just boycott buying gas from Exxon. Even for a week. Bet all of us Alaskans would accept the boycott over the money owed. Love to see them gone. Love more to see every Exxon employee and owner on hands and knees scrubbing our rocks! It should have been them cleaning it way back then. Sorry if I sound bitter, but unless you were here to see the devastation....you may not understand. People took loans to gas up the boats to go out to clean (couldn't fish for the gas money) Now, they have lost the boats, lost homes, lost families, because of the huge loans taken out to go clean oil, knowing (at the time) that EXXON was going to PAY US ALL BACK! None of us will see a dime from Exxon. Not one, not ever.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

boscoman — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:30:04 GMT

Doc, ur barking up the wrong tree just like everyone else in trying to find a scapegoat for high oil prices. If u want someone to blame maybe look to the govt who is the biggest earner in the oil industry via their rapacious taxation. Also via their enery policies have led to the US importing 70% of their oil supply. Exxon accounts for 3% of global crude supply so they are hardly a massive influence on output. But taxing them even more will create a further disincentive for them to attempt to increase production in what is one of the riskiest and capital intensive industries in the world. For such an ardent supporter of Ron Paul, ur anti-free market opinion when it comes to this is hard to believe.

As for speculation being the primary driver of higher oil prices, this is simply false. Whoever ur "expert" is has no clue. www.theoildrum.com/.../4334

The US faces serious energy supply problems in the years ahead and unless people stop playing the blame game and actually look at the facts and develop an intelligent policy based on those facts then the end result is going to be a whole lot worse than it has to be.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

andrew.prowse — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:41:04 GMT

Dr. Mercola knows plenty about health, but that is the field he should stick to. Whilst plenty in this article is true, there are also inaccuracies, which will only mislead people and allow opponents to question Dr. Mercola's credibility. By his own admission, the Doc has not made a thorough study of the matter. So he is not qualified to comment. Please, just stick to health, which we all know you are thoroughly qualified to write about!

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

CAROLINE E. — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:58:48 GMT

I'm sorry...... I just have a really difficult time grasping the fact that the CEO of EXXON 'earns' a salary of $30,000,000 (that's right, thirty million per year)! I can't imagine, in 30,000,000 years, just exactly what one man (or woman) could possibly be doing to 'earn' that kind of money - I don't care what kind of profits they earn, it just seems outrageous to me!

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

terryalanwade — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:31:52 GMT

Exxon Mobil paid $32.361 billion in taxes in the second quarter, which works out to $4,114 in taxes per second.

No one seems to put this figure alongside the profits mentioned.

They also pay 3 times as much in taxes as they made in profit.

Another point no one seems to consider is the fact that the government gets lots of our money in taxes, and has no responsibility to account to us how they use that money or if they use it wisely. At least the oil companies do something for their money.

re: What Company Earns $1500 Every Second?

MN4GW — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:09:56 GMT

Oops, what you forgot to mention is that Exxon paid $4,000 a second in taxes, and spent $15,000 a second in costs.

I can't think of anyone who would be willing to pay $4,000 in taxes for every $5,400 they earn in salary or wages. Yet many in our country believe it's OK, even desirable, for oil companies to do just that.

What's needed here is a bit more perspective, a sense of proportion. Though Exxon Mobil set a record for nominal profit, the oil industry isn't actually making the biggest profits.

In the first quarter of this year, the profit margin for oil companies was 7.4%. That trailed the electronic equipment industry (12.1%) and the pharmaceutical and medical industry (25.9%).

Last year, 63 industrial groups posted bigger profit margins than the oil industry.

Also obscured by the moaning over Exxon Mobil's profit is the fact that investors expected higher earnings from the company. After second-quarter profit was announced, the company's stock price fell almost 5% because of its disappointing performance.

That's not an aberration for this corporate behemoth that is ruining everyone's lives by selling them the gasoline they need.

A company has one job to do: make money. An oil company sells oil. Not wind, electricity, biofuel, bicycles or otherwise. Why are they supposed to come up with alternatives?