Farmers should be so lucky

[TboneMan]

I see a lot of gripes about oil company profits lately on this site and in the media.



While, I hate paying what I am paying for fuel ($3. 05) I don't sit around gripping about it. I try to conserve as much as possible.



The issue is, oil/fuel/gas are traded in the commonities market just like corn, wheat, soy beans, and hogs.



If some weather condition causes a general crop failure the price of these items skyrockets (lack of supply, continued demand). If you're a lucky farmer and you have an bumper crop when everyone else's crop failed, you make more money.



example:

If it costs the farmer $1. 00/bussel to create this bumper crop and the trading price increases from, $2. 00/bussel to $5. 00/bussel. The farmer will net a $4. 00/bussel profit on the crop instead of a $1. 00 profit. That's a good thing for the farmer who was lucky enough to have a product people wanted. The cost of producing the crop is the same whether the trading price is $2. 00 or $5. 00. Unfortunately for farmers the more likely scenerio is it costs $1. 00 to produce the crop but the trading price is $0. 50.



Now look at oil companies. It costs them $X to drill, ship or otherwise "produce thier crop". The production costs don't necessarily raise propotionately to the trading price $Y. With the product trading at such record high levels the "producing companies" make more money (profit).



Until traders think oil is a bad investment (remember buy low, sell high) the producing companies will continue to make more money.



Profit envy is not productive in a capitalist society.



Reduce demand and their profits will go down.

 

[Shrimpy]

Tbone, you are exactly right. For some reason MANY, MANY, others don't see it that way. Oil WILL FALL back to the high $50 low 60$ range, then you will not here the moaning and complaining.



Jim

 

[AMink]

Oil WILL FALL back to the high $50 low 60$ range

But I want it to go back to $25! :-laf It seems like yesterday that $1. 25/gal was "way up there"! I think the price gets bumped up until everyone screams, then dropped halfway between where it started and the high point. Then we all sigh with relief, but fail to realize we're still paying . 20 more than we did just a few months ago. But the screaming has quit and the politicians move on to lambasting something else.

 

[Tinman]

Tboneman: Thanks for some sane comments related to oil prices. I can't look at the threads here or listen to the media about this issue because of the insane comments from people who no clue how the economy works and what is driving prices (for anything). Things will get much worse. Fossil fuels, steel, and many other commodities are in greater demand and with less supply. Everything will get more expensive. There are some experts (non-mainstream) that are seeing an inflationary depression coming. This is in contrast to a deflationary depression (1920's depression). An inflationary depression is what was going on in Germany before Hilter was "elected". I hate to say it but freedom is dead. All these people who complain about fuel prices don't what to be free. They don't want the market to take care of prices. They want government to control prices, take care of there health and their retirement, etc, etc. None of this has a place in a free country or economy. Government is not the solution, it is the problem.

 

[TboneMan]

Gold Hits New 25-Year High!



Today's headline. Do we all think the cost of extracting this gold has increase proportionately?



These gold companies must be making HUGE profits from this. Why don't we hear about that in the news?



GOld has nearly as great an impact on our ecomony as oil (think currency value).

 

[Shrimpy]

Touche' Tbone... ..... another FACT based observation. I have been buying thru a gold focused mutual fund for better than a year now.



Great observation... ... .



Jim

 

[RustyJC]

I found the following interesting:



Metals Price Trend Graphs



Rusty

 

[BStoecker]

Holy cow! A thread about gaoline/oil/fuel/*insert your favorite commodity here* and no screaming about the big bad oil companies raping the world? I don't believe it. I have gotten so sick of the petitions, don't buy from this gas station, It's Bush's fault threads on all of the internet boards.



Any of you guys trading energy for a living? I'm a power marketer for a municipal utility and watch this stuff for a living.



Check out GSX. They are a natgas exploration/production company out in the CO/WY area. They are poised to make some serious $$$. I have loaded up on the stock over the past 2-3 years and have made some great gains. But, the bigger gains are still to come. :-laf

 

[RustyJC]

Holy cow! A thread about gaoline/oil/fuel/*insert your favorite commodity here* and no screaming about the big bad oil companies raping the world? I don't believe it.

john and his buddies haven't found this thread yet. :-laf



Rusty

 

[john3976]

john and his buddies haven't found this thread yet. :-laf



Rusty

You just don't understand, yo see no one has to buy Gold to live, gos on the other hand you need every day.



I know this is hard for some of you privileged people to understand, but not everyone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth like you and your buddies.



As for my Granddaughter, I will provide the silver spoon for her.

 

[BStoecker]

Let me guess, we have another "Cap Oil Company Profits" push going on here?



My questions is this. Where was the government when oil companies and drilling companies were folding up and declaring bankruptcy when the oil prices collapsed in the '80s??? Now that they have turned around and are able to make money, we should take that from them too?



Anyone that made the decision to buy and drive an 8,000 truck should be the last person to ***** about oil and gas prices. That is like marrying a fat chick and then *****ing about the price of groceries.

 

[RustyJC]

Oops, I spoke too soon. :{



I suspect agricultural commodities (the subject of this thread) are more of a necessity (you know, the food, water and shelter thing) for most people than cheap gasoline. So, I guess I understand better than you. :-laf



Rusty

 

[Shrimpy]

Holy cow! A thread about gaoline/oil/fuel/*insert your favorite commodity here* and no screaming about the big bad oil companies raping the world? I don't believe it. I have gotten so sick of the petitions, don't buy from this gas station, It's Bush's fault threads on all of the internet boards.



Any of you guys trading energy for a living? I'm a power marketer for a municipal utility and watch this stuff for a living.



Check out GSX. They are a natgas exploration/production company out in the CO/WY area. They are poised to make some serious $$$. I have loaded up on the stock over the past 2-3 years and have made some great gains. But, the bigger gains are still to come. :-laf

Thanks for the heads up BStoecker, I will have to check them out. I made an absolute killing on Natural gas futures last year, hope to repeat this year.



Jim

 

[RustyJC]

I know this is hard for some of you privileged people to understand, but not everyone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth like you and your buddies.

Ummm... . I was born about as far from privilege as is possible in America.



Rusty

 

[TboneMan]

No silver spoon here!



Other than your plain old 401K stuff, I'm not even an investor.



Worse yet, I work with a bunch of ENVIRONMENTAL engineers.



I just have a clear understanding of how things work.

 

[Jaysyl]

Oops, I spoke too soon. :{



I suspect agricultural commodities (the subject of this thread) are more of a necessity (you know, the food, water and shelter thing) for most people than cheap gasoline. So, I guess I understand better than you. :-laf



Rusty

Yes you spoke to soon :{ :{ So much hate and rage, I thought the big oil haters would have flamed out by now.

 

[AMink]

Let's see... I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth? Can't seem to find it. My parents worked hard for what we had and have. My wife and I work hard for what we have. Big Oil Supporter? I don't think so. I support capitalism. If I had a company and made a 10% profit, would that be way out of line? What if it only amounted to $10,000? This is going along the lines of making "the rich" pay higher percentage income tax because "they can afford it". I asked it on one of the other "John" threads... who decides how much is too much? What is obscene profit? Is it a percentage? A dollar amount? If all businesses made a 10% profit, would that be OK? I guess we need to move to the Starship Enterprise and stuff comes out of a replicator and nobody has to pay anyone for anything. Until then, I'll back capitalism UNTIL it is proven that someone is cheating. I haven't seen that conclusion yet re: oil companies. But if it does come about that the big oil companies are in cohouts, heck yeah!, send 'em to the stockades!



Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, they are all running together! :-laf



P. S. --Don't fall for the $100 rebate crap! That's our money taken from us as a tax. And it will be taxed again if we get it back! The government hates to lose!

 

[MCummings]

Yah, don't steal, the government hates competition...





Merrick

 

[john3976]

If I had a company and made a 10% profit, would that be way out of line? What if it only amounted to $10,000? This is going along the lines of making "the rich" pay higher percentage income tax because "they can afford it". I asked it on one of the other "John" threads... who decides how much is too much? What is obscene profit? Is it a percentage? A dollar amount?

One more time because you seem a little on the dense side regarding this issue.



When you are making 10% return as profit good for you, but when 10% margins become bad is when you start making more money then has ever been made by any business and it is putting a hurt to every day Americans, that my friend is to much.



I ask you again why is 8 Billion not enough?



Why is 4. 5 Billion not enough, at least at those levels the price of fuel was not so high that people had to start hawking their belongings just to have gas to go to work the next week.



I doubt anyone would say a thing if Exxon was making 8 Billion a year in profit and they were reinvesting the profits back into the company to make things better.



But Exxon has already admitted that they don't look for other sources of energy because in Exxon's own words "they wre not very good at it, so we decided to stick with oil. " man oh man what a company, make 36 Billion and the public knows Exxon is not looking for other sources of energy.



In the last two years Exxon has made over 61 Billion dollars, with the first quarter results in now that has just raised to 69 Billion dollars in 27 months.



That works out to 2. 55 Billion a month in profit.



That works out to a little more than 83 Million dollars a day.



That works out to 3. 4 million dollars an hour.



That works out to 57,638 dollars a minute.



That works out to 960 dollars a second.



Remember this just the profit after all expenses have been paid, Exxon makes a whole lot more money then what is posted in the above examples. Those are pure profit.

 

[AMink]

John, I am trying to be civil here. Calling me "dense" does not go a long way to making any kind of point. By your logic, the first business, long ago, that made more money than another

when you start making more money then has ever been made by any business

should not have been able to do that. Anyway, I have to go put my dog to sleep now; suddenly, this ******* match isn't very important.