More Record Profits

Something being totally ignored in all the gas price talk is not that the government should cap profits a business can make or not that government should tax businesses making profits because all of that easily confuses what's actually happening. Exxon Mobile, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reports a profit of $11.68 billion during the second quarter of this year-- the largest profit ever recorded. That means Exxon could cut prices in half and still make almost $6 billion/quarter. That's still a rather substantial profit to say the least. Actually, is there any other company in the world that makes $6 billion a quarter?

To say that there is some kind of price gouging going on is an understatement. $2 gasoline would still bring almost $6 billion profit to the largest oil company in the world and we're supposed to believe that basic capitalistic principles of supply and demand are driving up prices? Add in the fact that Bush & Cheney are both oilmen who personally make millions of dollars from oil, and even more millions when prices are gouged, and we start to see a very different forecast about what's happening.

There are already regulations in place to prevent companies from gouging but when the people in charge of enforcing those regulations are making millions from higher prices there's a good chance nothing's going to get done. Thus we have today's world.