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Topic: Change would be good (Read 236 times) |
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Kevin_M
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Change would be good
« on: Apr 3rd, 2006, 11:01am » |
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http://articles.news.aol.com/business/article.adp?id=2006040308240999000 7&cid=
Exxon Dethrones Wal-Mart on Fortune 500
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE, AP
NEW YORK (April 3) - Skyrocketing energy prices propelled Exxon Mobil Corp. to the top of the 2006 Fortune 500 list, and consigned Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to the No. 2 spot on the magazine's annual ranking of the nation's largest publicly traded companies.
Fortune compiled its list based on companies' 2005 revenues. Exxon Mobil raked in $340 billion in revenue, a 25.5 percent increase over 2004, and had $36.1 billion in profits, the most by any U.S. company in history.
Exxon Mobil last appeared at No. 1 in 2001. Only Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil and General Motors Corp. have topped the list since its inception in 1954.
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Other oil producers also rose in the rankings, boosted by crude prices that topped $70 a barrel and gasoline prices that surpassed $3 a gallon after hurricanes battered the Gulf Coast.
Both ChevronTexaco Corp. and ConocoPhillips saw their revenues jump in 2005, increasing by 28 percent and 37 percent, respectively. Chevron climbed two spots to No. 4, while Conoco edged up to No. 6 from No. 7 last year.
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(Here is the industry I'm in  with results due to sustained high fuel costs.)
The seven airline companies on the list lost a total of $28.4 billion last year. Only Southwest Airlines Co. was profitable. Ten of the 16 motor vehicle companies were profitable, but big losses from GM and Delphi Corp. weighed down the sector.
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Related article:
http://www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snCM_article102927.html
Goldman to open Mideast offices
Posted: Saturday, April 01, 2006
New York
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will open its first offices in the Middle East, chairman and chief executive Henry 'Hank' Paulson said, as the global investment bank expands its reach in this energy-rich region.
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Goldman, the second largest US securities firm, continues the expansion of Wall Street banks into new and emerging markets, eager to participate in their rapid economic development. The Middle East has amassed tremendous wealth because of the soaring prices of crude oil and natural gas exports.
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Archrival Morgan Stanley in recent months has announced plans to open offices in Dubai and Qatar. On Sunday, Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack attended the opening of that firm's Dubai office.
'There have been tremendous opportunities in emerging markets,' said Paulson, who noted he was leaving immediately after the meeting to travel to Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. -Reuters
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When I lived in Texas they had a law against price gouging when selling candles and water if a hurricane was coming. Apparently, oil companies can nationally profit from catastrophes though. Too much oil lobby for Congress to address this properly and more objectively I guess.
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| « Last Edit: Apr 3rd, 2006, 11:18am by Kevin_M » |
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marlinsfan
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Re: Change would be good
« Reply #1 on: Apr 3rd, 2006, 12:29pm » |
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As much as I hate wal-mart, I hate paying $50 to fill up my tank even more 
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pattik
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Re: Change would be good
« Reply #2 on: Apr 3rd, 2006, 1:05pm » |
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I think that it is also interesting that GM is still high up on the list from their sheer size despite their huge financial problems. It will be interesting to watch how labor unions are forced to change largely as a result of the high cost of health care and retirement plans. As to trashing the big oil companies once again, I refer to Ben Stein's market wisdom regarding the mechanics of oil prices. http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/yourlife/2973 To paraphrase: 'The prices you pay for heating oil or gasoline aren't set in boardrooms in Texas but in trading rooms at commodities markets all over the world.
Gas prices aren't set in shadowy conferences in shooting lodges, but in rooms of people shouting or punching computer keys in London, New York, and Tokyo. Oil is a world commodity like tin or copper or rubber or coffee. The price is set by traders anticipating supply and demand. Rumors of war in the Mideast, terrorism against oil platforms in Nigeria, warmer weather in New England, bitter cold in London -- these are what set energy prices. Even the biggest U.S. energy companies are tiny pawns in the game compared with the world market, flotsam and jetsam in the ocean of world oil trading.
So, when prices go up or down, it's not a conspiracy. It's panic or confidence in the market. It's just like what happens on the stock markets every trading day -- greed or fear at work, not at the companies being traded but on the exchanges. The oil companies can either lose or gain from this trading'.
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Yes, change would be good.
What will free us from our slavery to oil is alternatives. I'm hoping to see hydrogen being developed in a meaningful way. As a holder of some oil stock, I can personally attest to some very lean years in the profits and dividends, and compared to other companies like insurance, the profits are usually much less.
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| « Last Edit: Apr 3rd, 2006, 1:10pm by pattik » |
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The voyage of discovery is not about seeking new landscapes, it's about having new eyes--Marcel Proust
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Kevin_M
CH.com Alumnus
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withered branches grow green again.
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Re: Change would be good
« Reply #3 on: Apr 3rd, 2006, 2:24pm » |
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on Apr 3rd, 2006, 1:05pm, pattik wrote:Yes, change would be good.
What will free us from our slavery to oil is alternatives. I'm hoping to see hydrogen being developed in a meaningful way. |
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The oil lobby will keep that just a hope, it goes deep.
Another example, among many, of ethics reqarding companies in the the carbon fossil burning fuel industry:
Oil Lobbyist Becomes White House Climate Science Editor
Source: New York Times, June 8, 2005
In a lengthy memo Rick S. Piltz, a former senior associate in the Climate Change Science Program, revealed that U.S. government climate research reports had been edited by a White House official, Philip A. Cooney, to emphasize doubts about climate change. According to Piltz's memo Cooney, a former "climate team leader" and lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, changed one 2002 document to "create an enhanced sense of scientific uncertainty about climate change and its implications." In March this year Piltz resigned and subsequently contacted the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization. A white House spokeswoman, Michele St. Martin, told the New York Times that Cooney would not be available to speak to reporters. "He's not a cleared spokesman," she said. Myron Ebell from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a corporate-funded think tank, defended the editing as necessary for "consistency."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Competitive_Enterprise_Instit ute
Competitive Enterprise Institute
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It postures as an advocate of "sound science" in the development of public policy. In fact, it is an ideologically-driven, well-funded front for corporations opposed to safety and environmental regulations that affect the way they do business.
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CEI employs approximately 40 office people, including support staff and in-house and adjunct policy analysts. The following individuals are current or past CEI employees:
Robert Balling Jr.
Background
Education:
1974: AB, Wittenberg University
1975: MA, Bowling Green State University
1979: PhD in geography from the University of Oklahoma
Balling has acknowledged that he had received $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade (of which his University takes 50% for overhead). Contributors include ExxonMobil, the British Coal Corporation, Cyprus Minerals and OPEC. [1]*
*source: Wikipedia and 363.7387 G
External Resources
Show Me the Science
(http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/clear/by_clear/ShowMe.html). The Clearinghouse for Environmental Education, Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) takes a look at a directory of "environmental experts" (http://www.nationalcenter.org/ScientistDirectory) supplied by the CEI and other conservative think tanks. "Despite the claim that the directory is intended to provide a listing of scientists and economists to counter the prevalence of environmentalist political activists posing as self-appointed experts, over half of the people listed in the directory are described not as 'scientists' or 'economists,' but as 'public policy experts," CLEAR observes. Moreover, "their field of 'experts' is so thin that most of them need to 'specialize' in numerous policy fields in order to cover their bases." For example, CEI's Ike Sugg (whose academic credentials consist in their entirety of a bachelor's degree in philosophy and political science) "is listed as an expert in 5 different fields including animal rights, endangered species, innovative environmental solutions, land issues, and wilderness issues."
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| « Last Edit: Apr 3rd, 2006, 6:57pm by Kevin_M » |
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Charlie
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Re: Change would be good
« Reply #4 on: Apr 3rd, 2006, 3:40pm » |
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Quote:| Exxon Mobil | Current CEO: Rex Tillerson | |
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Sounds more like a big sky gay bounty hunter.
Too many rumors to be that squeaky clean and populated by too many people with golf courses in their back yards and interests in the 32,000 registered lobbyists on K St. Ben Stein is a well-known apologist for these people as well.
Oil is different.
Charlie
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There is nothing more satisfying than being shot at without result---Winston Churchill
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cootie
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sumday I'm gonna be sumbody........ ..
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Re: Change would be good
« Reply #5 on: Apr 3rd, 2006, 4:31pm » |
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I'm goin to start walkin to Walmart (yeah I only like Walmart cuz it is fairly close and one stop shopping).......heck even a horse and buggy is out cuz of grain and hay prices......gas went up to $ 2.65 this weekend and higher at sum other stations. The rich get richer Pam
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Cause and Effect......"Cause is the effect concealed, Effect is the cause revealed"
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