The Liberty Sphere has the low-down…
The solution that many liberals are selling to a gullible public is to place a windfall profits tax on the oil companies. My friends, oil is already taxed at a rate that boggles the mind. For every 8 cents the oil companies make in profits, the federal government alone collects 18 cents in taxes, and that doesn’t count state and local taxes.
Thanks for the link, Joel….
By the logic used by the Democrats, they ought to look into a windfall profits tax for farmers. With the Dems push for ethanol, the price of corn and other agricultural commodities has spiked big time causing farmers to reap prices never before seen. We ought to impose a windfall tax on farmers.
On another note, though, I will say that the rise in oil prices is not commensurate with the rise in prices at the pump. Something else is at work. In other words, a rise in oil prices of a dollar a barrel should not result in a rise of 30 cents a gallon at the pump, but that is what we’ve seen. On the other side, when prices dropped a dollar, we saw a smaller decrease in prices. Sort of like, “two steps forward, one step back.” A rise of 30 cents one day, a decrease of 20 cents the next day, then up 30 the day after. All of this happens while there is no shortage of supply, despite an increased demand.
We know that the primary market rule is that if supply declines while demand increases, prices increase. But here supply is meeting demand, yet prices continue to rise at rates not scene for thirty years. I’m not sure what’s happening, but the market is not acting like the market should.
Publius
I would like to point out that oil prices dropped nearly 12 dollars in the last week, with only a decrease in pump prices of 10-20 cents. But yesterday, oil prices rose 10 dollars and by the end of the day, prices were back over $4 dollars.
well… there’s a lot more to the price of gas than the price of crude.
I’m not really following you; you just admit that energy companies react to prices both on up and down turns. The price you pay for a gallon of gas didn’t just get refined and delivered the day before… you are paying for a gallon of gas that was purchased as crude a month ago. If the price of crude suddenly drops, oil companies still have loads of crude/refined gasoline IN THE PIPLINE… and the stuff in the pipeline was more expensive than the stuff coming off the boat at the suddenly lower prices.
It makes PERFECT SENSE why the cost of gas at the pump doesn’t exactly correlate with the price of crude coming off the ship… consumer purchasing lags in comparison to crude oil purchasing… you are still buying the more expensive stuff still in the pipeline.
Why are you all conspiracy-theorist all of a sudden? You don’t think the competition between the 3-5 oil companies tends to keep the price close to the market value? Or do you think there is collusion going on? (Congress hasn’t found so on numerous occasions)
2001–http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800EED9163BF931A35750C0A9679C8B63
2005–http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/05/AR2005070501486.html
2006–http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/23/BUGK5J097K1.DTL&type=business
If you want to blame someone for high oil prices… blame OPEC and CONGRESS… not American energy companies. (maybe I’m reading into your comment too much)
http://www.safehaven.com/article-10369.htm
2007–