National News Good News!

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by K C Muffin

I'm pretty conservative in my old age.....

As you should be.... Don't wanna lose 20 percent of your portfolio 2 years from retirement....lol

[banyon]

Also, not to be left out:

Shell sets new record for UK company profits


By Richard Blackden and Russell Hotten

Last Updated: 1:33am GMT 01/02/2008





Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has probably set a new record for annual profits at a British company as the price of crude touched $100 a barrel in the last three months of 2007.
A worker at a Shell liquid gas
site in Sakhalin

With crude averaging $90 a barrel for the final three months of 2007, Shell today reported profits, excluding changes in inventories and one-time items, of $27.6bn (£14bn.)

On a pre-tax level profits soared to $50.6bn (£25bn) in 2007 from $44.6bn in 2006. For the fourth quarter, pre-tax profits rose to $13.3bn from $9.1bn. Revenues also jumepd to $355.7bn vs $318.4bn.
Shell is the second of the oil majors to report results and while most analysts are forecasting profits to be strong across the industry, 2008 may prove tougher.

http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/01/31/bcnshell331.xml

[Army_of_One]

Compare the profit margin of the oil sector to such industries as pharmaceuticals and banking. Note that it makes some 8 cents on each dollar of sales while these other industries make 18 or 19 cents on each dollar.

The AVG combined TAX on a gallon of gas it about 47 cents a gallon (28.6 State avg/18.4 federal avg) (wikipedia). That means YOUR gov't makes about 6 TIMES what the "BIG" oil companies do on a gallon of gas. WHO are the REAL crooks here?

[K C Muffin]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

As you should be.... Don't wanna lose 20 percent of your portfolio 2 years from retirement....lol

Not so fast, AOO....I have a few more years than that - especially if they keep raising the retirement age...

[wordsmythe]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

Actually the difference of a few cents in a gallon of gas isn't that big of a deal unless you drive a LONG ways to work. If you drive 15000 miles a year that is about 288 miles a week or so avg. If you get 20 mph in your car that is about 15 gallons of gas a week. NOW...if gas goes from say 3.00 to 3.25 a gallon you would spend a whopping 3.75 a WEEK more in gas...or $15.00 more a month.

NOW...if you had 10,000 invested in OIL STOCKS and it returned 15 percent on the year you would make 1,500 dollars while spending about 180 more a year at the pump....

Considering it was about 2 bucks a gallon not long ago and will be around $4 a gallon this summer your math is a little weak.

Next lets factor in the rise in price of all the other things we have to buy that are shipped using gouged prices of fuel.

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by wordsmythe

Considering it was about 2 bucks a gallon not long ago and will be around $4 a gallon this summer your math is a little weak.

Next lets factor in the rise in price of all the other things we have to buy that are shipped using gouged prices of fuel.

Factor in the prices of everything you buy going up because of the ethanol craze. It hasn't lowered the price of gas but it's driven corn and such higher.

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by wordsmythe

and will be around $4 a gallon this summer your math is a little weak..

Now you are a financial analyst and prognosticator. I guess with your inside knowledge of the petroleum industry a smart man would invest in oil stocks...

[wordsmythe]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

Factor in the prices of everything you buy going up because of the ethanol craze. It hasn't lowered the price of gas but it's driven corn and such higher.

Ethanol is a pipe dream that will be busting soon.

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

Now you are a financial analyst and prognosticator. I guess with your inside knowledge of the petroleum industry a smart man would invest in oil stocks...

Even if I could afford to invest in it I just can't bring myself to accept blood money stolen from people who can't afford to lose it but aren't given a choice.

[ksgrainman]

Nope not going to comment, don;t want anyones panties getting in a knot again tonight. Oh well what the hell, I'll do it one more time. I will probably get impeached, but no one will remember that or really give a damn anyway!



The Clintons blind trust held stock in pharmaceutical companies, including $250,000-$500,000 in Biogen Idec and Johnson & Johnson and $100,000-$250,000 in Amgen, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. It also invested in General Electric and Raytheon, two leading defense contractors. The trust had a varied portfolio, with investments in numerous other companies, including Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco, Walt Disney and eBay.

[Highwayman]

“gouged prices” “blood money stolen from people who can't afford to lose it but aren't given a choice.”

Now there’s some Marxist sounding propaganda.

Not to worry, Hillary already said she was going to take those profits. Meanwhile, other Democrats are pushing for taxing fuel another 50 cents a gallon. There’s your blood money from people that can’t afford it but aren’t given a choice.