A - flippin- MEN!!

[Stacy's a freak]

Pete, thank you for your rant about gas/oil prices on this week's news/housekeeping/etc. I am sure that MANY agree with your sentiments but I have said the same things over and over again! I appreciate your rant. Well said! grrrrrr....

 

[MelissaFromRI]

 

[auroralark]

Count me in as someone else who agrees! I was sitting at work listening to the rant and nodding with everything you said, Pete!

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

I agree! You don't see any other company that can continue to raise prices like the gas companies and still expect people to buy there product. Plus it just burns me when you read about how much money they make and pay there executives, while the average American is scrapping the bottow of the pot to buy gas just to get back and forth to work.

(we really need a off the soap box smiley)

 

[DVCconvert]

I agree with you...but after looking at your thread title...why do I just want to say..."silence woman!"

 

[FireDancer]

I agree! You don't see any other company that can continue to raise prices like the gas companies and still expect people to buy there product. Plus it just burns me when you read about how much money they make and pay there executives, while the average American is scrapping the bottow of the pot to buy gas just to get back and forth to work.

(we really need a off the soap box smiley)

It is hard to compare the oil industry to any other because they enjoy something any for-profit industry views at the holy grail, inelasticity of demand. They have a product that people need and when you have a product that people need, and that doesn't have any true competitor, you can charge what you want for it. Now, of course there is a point at which even crude oil is priced out but we haven't gotten anywhere near that point yet.

Any for-profit publicly traded company has one responsibility that overrides all the others: the fiduciary responsibility to increase the wealth of the shareholders.

This is just a general statement about the oil industry, I haven't listen to the podcast yet and I also have no stake in any oil company. I'd love cheap gas but I don't blame the company for trying to maximize their profits. It is what companies should do.

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

It is hard to compare the oil industry to any other because they enjoy something any for-profit industry views at the holy grail, inelasticity of demand. They have a product that people need and when you have a product that people need, and that doesn't have any true competitor, you can charge what you want for it. Now, of course there is a point at which even crude oil is priced out but we haven't gotten anywhere near that point yet.

Any for-profit publicly traded company has one responsibility that overrides all the others: the fiduciary responsibility to increase the wealth of the shareholders.

This is just a general statement about the oil industry, I haven't listen to the podcast yet and I also have no stake in any oil company. I'd love cheap gas but I don't blame the company for trying to maximize their profits. It is what companies should do.

Yes, you are right that the company does have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. However, when they have billions in payroll expenses and they still continue to raise prices so they can meet the huge payroll, plus keep the shareholders happy?!?! In my eyes, it is just wrong. I'm an accountant and many a time I have seen companies (not just the oil industry) say they have to cut cost and raise prices to keep the share holders happy and keep the profit margin up, but they still spend money like it grows on trees. Often on stupid things and higher executive payroll. (back off my soap box).

 

[FireDancer]

Yes, you are right that the company does have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. However, when they have billions in payroll expenses and they still continue to raise prices so they can meet the huge payroll, plus keep the shareholders happy?!?! In my eyes, it is just wrong. I'm an accountant and many a time I have seen companies (not just the oil industry) say they have to cut cost and raise prices to keep the share holders happy and keep the profit margin up, but they still spend money like it grows on trees. Often on stupid things and higher executive payroll. (back off my soap box).

You are absolutely right, but that is the job of the board of directors. If the board is doing their job, and admittedly many do not, they are making sure the executives aren't putting their interests before the interests of the shareholders.

If any two business theories are true they are the Peter Principle and the Principal-agent problem. Too many boards don't take care of the later but in the end paying executives less wouldn't decrease price, there is no logical economic reason to do so, especially in the oil industry. They would charge the same and instead of paying the executives they would invest the funds in a way that benefited the shareholders (either with dividends or capital expenditure aimed at future revenue). The most important factor to setting price is demand. All lowering executive pay would do is change how the profits are distributed after they are made, they wouldn't lower the profits.

 

[diz4ever]

I have a brother-in-law who works for a major oil company. I have toured his offices. State of the art everything - he gets every other friday off - on site state of the art gym - starbucks coffee - 7 weeks vacation - yearly conferences (just went to one in South america and did ziplining, hiking etc). Not a bad job at all. He has continued to get raises even during the energy "crisis" and our raising gas prices. He has worked there for 25 years, but it does seem like money is not an issue for them at all.

 

[WebmasterMike]

It is hard to compare the oil industry to any other because they enjoy something any for-profit industry views at the holy grail, inelasticity of demand. They have a product that people need and when you have a product that people need, and that doesn't have any true competitor, you can charge what you want for it. Now, of course there is a point at which even crude oil is priced out but we haven't gotten anywhere near that point yet.

Any for-profit publicly traded company has one responsibility that overrides all the others: the fiduciary responsibility to increase the wealth of the shareholders.

This is just a general statement about the oil industry, I haven't listen to the podcast yet and I also have no stake in any oil company. I'd love cheap gas but I don't blame the company for trying to maximize their profits. It is what companies should do.

You are absolutely right, but that is the job of the board of directors. If the board is doing their job, and admittedly many do not, they are making sure the executives aren't putting their interests before the interests of the shareholders.

If any two business theories are true they are the Peter Principle and the Principal-agent problem. Too many boards don't take care of the later but in the end paying executives less wouldn't decrease price, there is no logical economic reason to do so, especially in the oil industry. They would charge the same and instead of paying the executives they would invest the funds in a way that benefited the shareholders (either with dividends or capital expenditure aimed at future revenue). The most important factor to setting price is demand. All lowering executive pay would do is change how the profits are distributed after they are made, they wouldn't lower the profits.

Frank has it!!

The main influences in gas prices are speculation on oil prices and federal policies. When policies force artificial inflation of oil speculation and then combine that with supply & demand, is what causes gas prices to go up.

I think the part that was forgotten was that those companies also keep the economy going during down economies. Those employees of those companies are the ones that are going to WDW and DL.

I hate high gas prices also. But remember that without thriving industries others would go away. It is a big ecosystem.

 

[WebmasterMike]

I have a brother-in-law who works for a major oil company. I have toured his offices. State of the art everything - he gets every other friday off - on site state of the art gym - starbucks coffee - 7 weeks vacation - yearly conferences (just went to one in South america and did ziplining, hiking etc). Not a bad job at all. He has continued to get raises even during the energy "crisis" and our raising gas prices. He has worked there for 25 years, but it does seem like money is not an issue for them at all.

Those people keep the economy going. There are soooo many businesses that rely on Oil and Gas companies.

What I think is funny is that at a meeting I was at Tuesday, there was a slide that showed the top 4 companies with the most available capital (Cash) on hand.

Of the Top 4, Exxon was at the bottom of the list.

Walmart, Apple, and Microsoft each have more than twice the available capital than Exxon.

Yes, you are right that the company does have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. However, when they have billions in payroll expenses and they still continue to raise prices so they can meet the huge payroll, plus keep the shareholders happy?!?! In my eyes, it is just wrong. I'm an accountant and many a time I have seen companies (not just the oil industry) say they have to cut cost and raise prices to keep the share holders happy and keep the profit margin up, but they still spend money like it grows on trees. Often on stupid things and higher executive payroll. (back off my soap box).

I sit on the Philanthropy committee at my company and I can say that we spend WAY more in Philanthropy than we do in executive pay.

 

[book_junkie]

Soapbox smiley

Shutting Up On Soapbox smiley

Totally agree with rant and previous posts, BTW...

 

[Stacy's a freak]

I agree with you...but after looking at your thread title...why do I just want to say..."silence woman!"

I realized after I posted that the thread title could make one think that I was bashing men ... not today my friends. Perhaps tomorrow

 

[Cherinva]

Gas prices are out of control....enough said

 

[dmccarty]

A month or so ago Exxon had an advert in the Wall Street Journal saying that their profit on a gallon of gas was 5-6 cents.

I went and fact checked them. I found there profit for one year and the number of gallons sold. The numbers were from a different year but Exxon made 5-6 cents per gallon.

NC is raising the fuel tax in July another 2.5 cents. Right now the NC tax on a gallon of gas is 32.5 cents. On July 1st, the tax will be 35 cents.

The Federal tax is another 18.4 cents per gallon.

On July 1st I will be paying 53.4 cents per gallon in state and Federal taxes compared to Exxon's profit of 5-6 cents.

The oil industry gets 4-6 billion dollars back from the taxes they pay. They pay far more in taxes than they get back from the tax law. We could close those tax breaks and it would not hurt the oil companies at all.

I checked Exxon's profit margin a few years ago and it was 35%. That is a decent margin. Some business is are much, much less but others can be over 80%.

Later,
Dan

 

[SDSorority]

Pete, thank you for your rant about gas/oil prices on this week's news/housekeeping/etc. I am sure that MANY agree with your sentiments but I have said the same things over and over again! I appreciate your rant. Well said! grrrrrr....

I loooooove Pete's rants. And Kevin's. They make my day.