Windfall Tax On Oil Profits Needed After “Forecast-Busting First-Quarter Earnings “

The news should not startle anyone who feels like they need a bank loan to fill the gas tank on their car.  Gasoline prices have rocketed, and predictions are that things will get worse.  Now comes word that forecast-busting first-quarter earnings were reported by oil companies which only adds salt to the wound.

BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe’s two biggest oil producers, posted forecast-busting first-quarter earnings on Tuesday thanks to record crude oil prices that are expected to bolster profits across the industry.

BP posted a 63 percent surge in first-quarter net profit to $7.6 billion (4.9 billion euros), while Shell reported a 25 percent rise, to a record $9.08 billion (5.81 billion euros).

Revenue at BP jumped 44 percent to $89.2 billion (57.1 billion euros), while sales at Shell soared 55 percent to $114 billion (72.95 billion euros).

Last week ConocoPhillips reported a 16 percent rise in net income to $4.14 billion. Like BP and Shell, the third biggest U.S. producer far outpaced industry expectations. More big profits are expected from the biggest two U.S. companies, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., when they report first-quarter earnings later this week.

The combined profits of $17 billion, at a time when Americans are falling behind on mortgage payments, and struggling to find the money to fill the tank just to get to work, should alert the White House about the need for legislative action.

Clearly there must be a windfall tax on oil profits, a remedy that has long been proposed, and one I strongly support.  Some of the smarter politicians understand the need for such a response.

“With the price of oil and gas skyrocketing, and the big oil companies continuing to enjoy record-breaking profits the time has come, among other things, to impose a windfall profits tax on the oil companies so that consumers don’t get gouged at the pump,” Senator Sanders said in a news release. “Congress and the president must say ‘no’ to the $213 million in campaign contributions that the oil industry has given to them since 1990 and ‘yes’ to consumers by taking this important step.”

The Bush White House has been too cozy with oil interests while the economic conditions for average and low income Americans have deteriorated.  Things are not going to get better as predictions of $200 a barrel oil is now being talked about.

Opec’s president on Monday warned oil prices could hit $200 a barrel and there would be little the cartel could do to help.

The comments made by Chakib Khelil, Algeria’s energy minister, came as oil prices hit a historic peak close to $120 a barrel, putting further pressure on global economies.

The prices for goods and services are climbing in the US, and the high price that truckers need to pay for fuel is the chief reason why.

Dave Gares, an independent truck driver since 1974 who hauls mostly soft drinks these days, never dreamed he’d be paying more than $4 per gallon for diesel.

It takes 220 gallons to fill up his tractor-trailer rig, which gets a little over six miles per gallon on the road. It costs Gares up to $1,400 to fill up, with the added cost of fuel additives to boost his truck’s mileage. He said he has to absorb the increases to stay competitive.

Clearly there needs to be a response to the obscene oil company profits that sap the incomes of families in America.

Technorati Tags: OilProfits, PresidentBush, BernieSanders, OPEC, WindfallTax

Gasoline Cost Calculator. Calculate The Estimated Fuel Cost Of Your Trip

As I write this post ABC News reports that “OIL HITS ALL-TIME HIGH OF MORE THAN $119 A BARREL, BREAKING RECORD FOR THIRD STRAIGHT DAY”

So the calculator here might not be a bad idea as the summer road trip season is just around the bend.  Give it a try as it will estimate the cost of your trip.

Technorati Tags: GasPrices, Economy, TripleAAA

Iraq War Costing America $5,000 Per Second!

The must read story in the Sunday newspaper is one that hits many Americans up aside the head.

More important, while casualties in Baghdad are down, we’re beginning to take losses in Florida and California. The United States seems to have slipped into recession; Americans are losing their homes, jobs and health insurance; banks are struggling — and the Iraq war appears to have aggravated all these domestic woes.

“The present economic mess is very much related to the Iraq war,” says Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist. “It was at least partially responsible for soaring oil prices. …Moreover, money spent on Iraq did not stimulate the economy as much as the same dollars spent at home would have done. To cover up these weaknesses in the American economy, the Fed let forth a flood of liquidity; that, together with lax regulations, led to a housing bubble and a consumption boom.”

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For all the disagreement, there appears to be at least a modest connection between spending in Iraq and the economic difficulties at home. So as we debate whether to bring our troops home, one central question should be whether Iraq is really the best place to invest $411 million every day in present spending alone.

I’ve argued that staying in Iraq indefinitely undermines our national security by empowering jihadis — just as we now know that our military presence in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s was, in fact, counterproductive by empowering Al Qaeda in its early days. On the other hand, supporters of the war argue that a withdrawal from Iraq would signal weakness and leave a vacuum that extremists would fill, and those are legitimate concerns.

But if you believe that staying in Iraq does more good than harm, you must answer the next question: Is that presence so valuable that it is worth undermining our economy?

Granted, the cost estimates are squishy and controversial, partly because the $12.5 billion a month that we’re now paying for Iraq is only a down payment. We’ll still be making disability payments to Iraq war veterans 50 years from now.

Technorati Tags: IraqWar, NewYorkTimes, Economy, Election08

Find Out When Your Economic Stimulus Check From The Government Will Arrive

Do not spend it all in one place.

In addition you can calculate to see what you will receive.

Technorati Tags: TaxRefund, EconomicStimulusPayments, Economics

Conservatives Should Get A Second Job To Pay War Costs That Might Reach $12 Billion A Month

I really find it troublesome that conservatives in the White House, and their conservative kind in Congress start needless wars that cost the nation in both blood and national treasure.  Then the echo chamber of conservative talk radio and FAUX News takes the weakest minds in the country and encourages them to mimic the war chants and lies that only continues the madness in Iraq.  A madness that has stripped our country economically to the point that we are in a serious recession.

That leaves the average American working harder, making less money, having less purchasing power, and wondering what in heck is happening to the nation.

The news for the average American got worse with the latest prediction about the cost of President Bush’s needless war in Iraq.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes report in a new book “The Three Trillion Dollar War” that in this, the sixth year of the war, the conflict will cost about $12 billion a month. That’s triple the cost of the war’s earlier years.

Beyond 2008, they project the Iraq and Afghan wars, including long-term U.S. military occupations of those countries, will cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion — or more — by 2017.

They said interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to the bottom line.

I for one have been advocating that all the conservatives who champion invading foreign lands and killing their leaders and citizens might give up their free time at night and on the weekends and find a part-time job to pay for the war.  These brave little soldiers of the mouth are not brave enough to actually fight, so I feel they should at least participate in paying for the war they created and condone.  Their trophy wives at home, and the men they shoot skeet with at the Club will have to adjust as the nation is in need of more money to fund these mindless and bloody adventures.  Finding a part-time job will also give these morally disadvantaged conservatives time to mingle with the average American that knows what it is like to work two jobs all year long.   In the end these conservatives should just turn their checks over to the defense department and the war effort.

It is the least conservatives can do for absolutely ruining our nation.
Technorati Tags: IraqWar, PresidentBush, Conservatives, Recession, Economy

President Bush Drowning Nation In Record-Making Red Ink

President Clinton left office with a $559 billion surplus.  That is important to remember as you read this story.

The following will shock you only if you have not been watching the Bush White House with any degree of scrutiny over the past seven years.  For all the spin and blather that runs from the Bush Administration, there is only disaster and chaos to show for their efforts at governing.

The entire world understands the carelessness with which President Bush has handled foreign affairs.  Nothing could be worse than that.   Right?

Wrong.

President Bush introduced a $3.1 trillion budget on Monday that supports sizable increases in military spending to fight the war on terrorism and protects his signature tax cuts.

The spending proposal, which shows the government spending $3 trillion in a 12-month period for the first time in history, squeezes most of government outside of national security, and also seeks $196 billion in savings over the next five years in the government’s giant health care programs — Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

Even with those savings, Bush projects that the deficits, which had been declining, will soar to near-record levels, hitting $410 billion this year and $407 billion in 2009. The all-time high deficit in dollar terms was $413 billion in 2004.

Read the full CNN story here.

How ironic the Republican Party touts their fiscal conservatism, and ability to better manage the nation’s economy, as a selling point in the 2008 elections.

Technorati Tags: CNN, Economy, PresidentBush, BillClinton

Did Anyone Else Feel Panic In The Air This Morning With Federal Reserve Move?

An hour before the opening bell on Wall Street and the biggest news story of the day already had taken place.  The news from the Federal Reserve that the federal fund rate was cut three-quarters of a percent, along with the discount rate, was news heard around the globe.  The lowering of the interest rate sent off more nerves however than it calmed, in a world that is suffering from the downturn in the U.S. economy.

The fact that an unscheduled meeting of the Federal Reserve took place in response to world markets plummeting, with the resulting action it took, underscores the seriousness that the economy faces.

There will be much speculation as to what is the proper economic course for a nation that is paying record high oil prices, while some consumers are being saddled with high debt and mortgage loans.  Though the latter is mostly the fault of misguided consumers the end result has a national impact.  No, make that an international one.

The thing that Americans must not demand is an instant answer, as there is none.  The rut we find ourselves in took time to develop, and the answer to the downturn will take months, if not years, to correct. 

There might be justification for the rate cute today, but the manner that is was done was unnerving to many folks, including all the traders on Wall Street.  Calm reasoning is the only smart course we have that will get us through the downturn in our economy. 

As CNN reported the nerves and stress are on high alert.

Stocks plunged at the open Tuesday morning, following two straight days of massive selloffs abroad. But stocks bounced off their lows as the morning progressed.

“You can get into a debate as to whether we’re in a recession or not, but it’s a really turbulent period right now and that makes it difficult for investors to figure out what to do,” said Phil Dow, director of equity strategy with RBC Dain Rauscher.

Dow said the rate cuts are a welcome sign that should eventually help to stabilize the markets but he cautioned that stocks, particularly beaten down financial services companies, could still see more pain.

Along those lines, Rich Yamarone, chief economist with Argus Research, added that the Fed may be hitting the panic button, “There is no economic reason that the Fed couldn’t wait until next week to cut rates,” he said. “Something bigger is looming.”

Technorati Tags: FederalReserve, FederalFundRate, DiscountRate, Economy
Technorati Tags: CNN

Economic Woes Hit Chicago Tradition…And It Is A Shame

The news this morning on Chicago radio was sad. 

James and I love Chicago, and over the years have enjoyed the famed windows at Marshall Field’s at Christmas time.  The windows were always decorated with flair and holiday splash, homey reminders of seasonal nostalgia, and the warmth of everything that is right with the world.  Macy’s bought out the chain in 2006, which brought great alarm to traditionalsits.  And for good reason.

For 25 years, Amy Meadows designed the magical masterpieces seen inside the frosty windows of what used to be Marshall Field’s flagship State Street store. She’d also make sure every twinkling star on the Great Tree in the store’s famed Walnut Room was just right.

But not anymore.

Now that Christmas is over and disappointing holiday sales have been tallied, Macy’s Inc. put on its Grinch costume and announced Friday it will eliminate 100 jobs in Chicago, including Meadows’.

Meadows, senior manager of window displays, started her career at Marshall Field’s as a window designer and eventually came to mastermind the creation of all of the store’s displays and the Great Tree.

She could not be reached for comment.

The layoffs take effect in March and affect about 100 workers in the Chicago area, 70 in Detroit and 100 in the Minneapolis region. On Thursday, Macy’s Inc. closed food operations at its stores in Bolingbrook, Oak Brook, Aurora and Vernon Hills and plans to shut its in-store wine shops at all stores except the State Street location.

Macy’s Inc. did not comment on dismissing Meadows, an employee with 25 years of institutional memory, but a spokeswoman said, “We have a talented visual team who will decorate our store windows and continue the time-honored tradition.”

Since the changeover in September 2006, Macy’s has been struggling to win the hearts of Chicago shoppers loyal to Marshall Field’s, which was, to some, synonymous with warm Christmas memories.

Technorati Tags: Macy’s, MarshallFields, AmyMeadows, Chicago

Economic History Says The Presidential Winner Will Be…..

Near the end of a front page story in the New York Times concerning the economic down-turn in America, and ideas on how to deal with it, is the paragraph that sends nervousness around not only Washington, but campaigns flung across the nation.  In an election season that is so tight and unpredictable as the one we now are experiencing, could history show us the way?

A recession could pack enormous political consequences. Over the last century, the economy has been in a recession four times in the early part of a presidential election year, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. In each of those years — 1920, 1932, 1960 and 1980 — the party of the incumbent president lost the election.

What The Iraq War Money Could Have Bought Us

There are so many reasons to be against the Iraq War.  From the way some were misled by the Bush Administration into thinking the war was about terrorism, to the dreadful long term consequences that invading a Middle Eastern nation will have on foreign relations.  (President Bush never read history of the region!) There is also the financial drain on the U.S. economy that effects everyone. 

But now according to a new study by a newspaper, The Boston Globe, the price tag for the war can be looked at in new ways that brings the cost into focus for the average American.  If you calculate that the latest war funding bill passes in Congress, that means taxpayers have been soaked for $611.5 billion! 

So what would all the Iraq War funding money buy?  According to to Editor and Publisher it is quite shocking.

• “U.S. drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days.”

• “In fiscal 2008, Medicare benefits will total $454 billion, according to a Heritage Foundation summary. The $611 billion in war costs is 17 times the amount vetoed by the president for a $35 billion health.”

• “According to World Bank estimates, $54 billion a year would eliminate starvation and malnutrition globally by 2015, while $30 billion would provide a year of primary education for every child on earth. At the upper range of those estimates, the $611 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world’s poor for seven years.

“Technorati Tags: BostonGlobe, IraqWar, WarFunding, Taxes
 EditorAndPublisher

Lake Michigan Not To See Increased Dumping By British Petroleum

UPDATE Click link for new story on BP America

This is one of those stories that showcase the reason every one of us can say our voice does make a difference.  If we exercise it.  If you have ever felt powerless in the face of huge entities, unable to effect change, or push back a flawed policy, then this story should give you reason to hope. 

The huge oil giant, British Petroleum America, had hoped to increase the amount of pollutants it discharges in Lake Michigan from their Whiting, Indiana plant.  The company had used the rationale that an expansion of their refinery, along with the increase in pollutants being released, would allow for more production capacity of Canadian crude oil.  The uproar that resulted from the people, who live in the region and care about the environment, was nothing short of ballistic.  Groups organized quickly to boycott BP, with Chicago aldermen even threatening to no longer have city contracts with the oil giant.

BP was trying to sell the idea that adding 1,584 pounds of ammonia, and 4,925 pounds of suspended solids every day into Lake Michigan was all worth it, as 2,000 construction jobs and 80 permanent jobs would be created with the new expansion.  The company found that their pabulum was not selling to the public.  The people raised their voices, called radio shows, wrote editorials, and contacted their elected officials.  The concern about the long-term interest of the lake far outweighed any promises of jobs from an oil giant with outlandish profit margins.   Over 100,000 citizens signed a petition, and politicians from all sides agreed that the company was flawed in their thinking.  BP was not thinking of the best needs of Lake Michigan, or the people who live there.  Ideas to combat this corporate nightmare ranged from lawsuits to congressional hearings.  Even rock stars got into the debate with the lead singer from Pearl Jam penning a protest song.

Late last week the company spun 180 degrees and agreed not to release more pollutants into Lake Michigan.  But given the track record of oil companies, and corporate America in general, most now agree that any promise by BP needs to be legally binding. 

But for now there is a lesson to be learned from this episode.  We citizens have a voice and power when we decide to use it.  The big and powerful are only able to get by with their horrible ideas because too often we fail to act.  But when our collective anger finds purpose we can do mighty things.

BP found that out.  It is a lesson they will not forget, and one we should not forget either.

Technorati Tags: BritishPetroleum, LakeMichigan,

Will Politicians Be Brighter Over Dubai Business Deal This Year?

It was an embarrassing spectacle to see politicians of all stripes running around the country last year in an effort to stir up dust over a plan to allow a Dubai based company to oversee port operations at several locations in the country.  Both political parties drew strength from the fact that many Americans seemed clueless about international companies already d0ing this port business for many years.  Everyone either saw a terrorist act in the making, or hoped to make others see it.  Whatever the motives or intent the end result was that the United States looked like ninnies to the world community.

I hope we do not again make the same mistake with a new deal that is in the making.

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is working on a deal to buy a series of aviation businesses from U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group.  As part of the agreement, the Dubai company would buy Landmark Aviation, an aircraft maintenance provider, and Standard Aero, which provides repair and overhaul services at airport terminals for small-jet aviation and some military transports.

It was a most remarkable sight to see both Democrats and Republicans simultaneously jumping to the most illogical thinking just because a very well-respected company located in the Middle East wanted to do business in the United States.  It was hard to get past all the lather that these politicians created as most of our nation seemed not to be aware how port authorities operated, and what a holding company actually was designed to do.  This is yet another example of why the public needs to be educated on the issues of the day so they can not be led astray by self-serving politicians.

It was bizarre to see politicians argue that a business bridge to the Middle East should not be created just so a few points could be scored for the latest polls here in America.  I trust that those who harbor Potomac fever (or others) do not create an embarrassment over this latest deal with Dubai Aerospace Enterprise.  And I trust that my fellow citizens are better informed about international economics.

Technorati Tags: Dubai, PortAuthority,