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Gasoline PricesSubmitted by Miskito Alan on 27 October, 2005 - 09:53.
Exxon Mobil says do not let your your heart be troubled by high gasoline prices or any war in Iraq because that company and probably all other oil companies love the high prices. http://news.yahoo.com/fc/business/oil_and_gas Exxon Mobil Posts New Record for Profit AP - 1 hour, 12 minutes ago IRVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. had a quarter for the record books. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday high oil and natural-gas prices helped its third-quarter profit surge almost 75 percent to $9.92 billion, the largest quarterly profit for a U.S. company ever, and it was the first to ring up more than $100 billion in quarterly sales. Net income ballooned to $9.92 billion, or $1.58 per share, from $5.68 billion, or 88 cents per share, a year ago. _________________________________________________ |
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Story Gets Better
Miskito Alan says that with "Exxon Mobil" earning 10 Billion or Trillion US (American) Dollars that they have now injected their employees with "fake flu shots" in a new cost-cutting effort.
God - USA Corporations are so Stupid.
Fri Oct 28,12:46 PM ET
BAYTOWN, Texas - Fake flu shots were given out last week at a health fair at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Baytown complex and an investigation was under way, authorities said.
Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Treacy A. Roberts said Thursday that the FBI told the company that what was administered "definitely not the flu vaccine."
It doesn't appear that the fake shots were harmful, but steps were being taken to ensure workers' safety, U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg said in a statement Thursday.
Exxon Mobil offered blood tests and counseling to the up to 1,000 employees who took part in the health fair at the oil company's vast complex of refineries and chemical plants just east of Houston.
The FBI and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating what was in the syringes and whether others might have received the fake vaccine, Rosenberg said.
Jeanne Miller, another Exxon Mobil spokeswoman, said a doctor provided the shots in Exxon's first use of an outside contractor to administer the shots. She declined to identify the doctor because of the federal investigation.
In the past, Miller said, company medical staff had offered flu shots at health fairs.
FBI officials did not explain how they found out about the potential fraud, Roberts said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051028/ap_on_he_me/fake_flu_shots
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"John" - "FDC"
Miskito Alan says just drink that "Flor De Cana" straight for U$5/quart and forget all those high-priced bottled "Perrier's" and whatever is now on the "hot list" and "Coke" too and just drink straight and if you drink enough; you will be concerned with nothing.
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Corporate profits
Yes! You're talking quarterly profits, that's more than companies like Intel and Time Warner earn in a full year. Oh, ...and Let's give them more tax brakes so they can keep all those profits.
Bat
I have a splintery baseball bat I would like to apply to their margins! This is litterally highway robery!
Aaah, Wisconsin
Aaah, Wisconsin ... but I still want to get back to Central America where I also have a place (here in the States for a "family matter"). $5 a gallon for milk? I guess maybe I should not complain here in WI, but of course I do. Here gas is $2.32, milk is $2.49, and bottled water is about $0.85, all per gallon. Not paradise though, with avacadoes, cantelopes, and mangos EACH being about $2.25, $3.25, and $1.50, this summer! Always a little sticker shock when I come back here
Hyperinflation
John,
The fact is that we are going into global hyperinflation. Look how housing has just about doubled in many parts of the US in the last 2-4 years. My house is "worth" 60% more than it was 18 months ago. Can this last? No! But everything is going up. It doesn't make much sense to have money in savings or money market accounts at 3.5% when inflation is eating it up at 10-12%. The only things worth having money in right now are things that people actually use, or perhaps gold/siler/platinum.
Gas has gone down to $2.59 here now. But inflation continues at a rampant pace. I got out of the stock market a while back, figuring that the housing bubble bursting, Greenspan leaving, deficits from the war, etc, is going to ruin this economy. It's been a good move in the last month or two to be OUT of the market. I need to get down to Nica and buy my finca before the US dollar is worthless. The largest denomination they make is a $100, so maybe I can rent a guy that hauled Phil's concrete blocks and such on his cart to take the dollars around with me when I am land hunting.
But it does irk a lot of us that Mobil Exxon is hauling in record profits when the price of gas for the masses has been so high.
-Carl
CPI Figures For Comparison
Here are some officially published consumer price inflation figures for comparison. I used the most recent figures I found in a ten minute search.
The September 2005 Canadian Consumer Price Index rose at a 2.6% annualized rate. Source: Statistics Canada
In the USA, the Consumer Price Index rose at a 4.7% annual rate for all urban consumers. Source: US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Producer Prices on finished goods rose rose at a 6.9% rate for the twelve months from September 2004 to September 2005. For the month of September 2005, the Producer Price Index rose 1.9% (22.8% annualized rate). Source: US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is a dangerous level if sustained. However, it is most likely to reflect a jump in petroleum prices that will not be sustained.
The World Bank estimates Nicaraguan inflation was 6.7% in 2004. Source: The World Bank
For Jamaica, "For the period August 2004 to August 2005 the rate of inflation was 16.7 percent." Source: Statistical Institute of Jamaica.
I don't think we need to be to afraid of hyperinflation, at least not in major currencies. Why? Because there is nothing you or I can do to cause or prevent it. Were it to happen, the world economy would be ruined and the only thing you will be able to do is to eke out a living doing something productive so you can trade with your neighbors.
Just remember, there can be extreme inflation in a precious metals monetary system, too. Historical examples abound in gold rush towns.
When the real estate bubble bursts here in the USA, the effect on the monetary system will be to shrink the money supply, putting a lid on inflation.
Shrinking the Money Supply?
I have to disagree! The first thing that will happen when the US real estate bubble gets into bigtime bursting, versus just the beginnings of it that we are seeing now, is that the FED will begin to bail everyone out. And to do that, they will use the preferred technique of every US war president in history. They could increase taxes or deficits, or they can make more money. What have they ALL done? Print more money! Hyperinflation (the beginning of it) IS HERE NOW! Look at the rest of these posts about the price of water and gas and other supplies. Hyperinflation has both inflationary and deflationary components at the same time. It really is a psychological drama playing out when people lose confidence in their currencies. I have some excellent documentation that I will send a link to on Saturday on all of this.
While it's true that once it happens there is not much you can do about it, it is also VERY TRUE that if you have done some preparation before hand (like moving to Nica and being in the place you want to be for a while), you will be much better off. Getting stuck in the US with worthless real estate is not my cup of tea. Let's face it, if nobody can afford your property, it's not going to sell. Multiply that by a few millionfold, and nothing selling will translate to worthless property. I firmly believe that many many people in the US are going to be walking away from property in the next two to three years, and the largest bubble in US history, the housing bubble of the past 2-3 years, will be the undoing of the US economy. It's way too fragile right now to weather this bubble popping, but pop it will.
I'm in either the first or the 10th city in the US for overheated real estate inflation, depending on who you read. So I feel I am seeing it here faster than most. I got into real estate because of the big profits. Now I am getting out due to big losses. There is a sign on every street corner for a home for sale here. And they have started staying there recently. NO SOLD SIGNS are showing up. So now the 100% or even 106% mortgage people are real scared. They will fold, puting more places on the market, and things will fall like a house of cards. I'm not worried about it. I KNOW it's going to happen. There is going to be a bloodbath on the west coast, for sure. It's already started. A double wide mobile home just sold in California for $1.8 Million, near Malibu. And that does not include the land under the home. Who in hell can afford that? Who in their right mind would spend that? The same psychology, but in reverse, is now coming on.
Economics is Dismal Science
Of course you could be right. Economics is dismal science, especially so when called upon to predict economic reactions to relatively large shocks.
However, the last great speculative bubble to burst in the USA was the 1929 stock market crash. The Fed and the Hoover Administration saw no reason to expand the money supply at that time. The result: a widespread crisis in liquidity because of the massive amounts of uncollectible debt, followed by serious wage and price deflation. Of course, they remembered the German hyperinflation only a few years before and were leary of responding too strongly.
At other times, governments have responded by increasing the money supply to make sure there was enough liquidity in the markets to prevent ruinous deflation. Finding the balance is the trick.
And perhaps one can avoid being stuck with worthless real estate by not speculating in worthless real estate in the first place, eh?
Gary - Lets don't Forget
Miskito Alan says that all of us can not forget the NASDAQ at 5,000 and the dot.com bust and all of that bullshit.
All of the "serious investors" ride the markets up and make money and ride the markets back down to the bottom and lose money and that is the USA way.
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Let's not forget!
More wisdom from Miskito Alan!
Yes, let's not forget the dotcom bust, and we'll throw in the savings and loan "crisis," too. But I think Carl was thinking of a really BIG bust that would cause the economy to fall into a depression. Some parts of the world have farther to fall than others.
And what do we take for depression?
Mas cerveza, o Flor de Cana, no? I think I'll have a little "preventative medicine" right now.
Now You're Talkin!
Ah, the BEST Medicine! People tell me I'm apathetic, but I just don't care!
-Carl
Miskito Alan Diagnosis
Miskito Alan's doctor told him the same thing that he was apathetic; but, then he realized he had wasted a U$100 on the doctor to tell me that my problem was "I did not care".
And the other favorite is "Mark Twain" saying that "poverty is not embarrassing; but, poverty is certainly damn inconvienient".
Or, maybe that was Will Rogers.
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Inflation
John,
I have a good friend in the financial arena and I was a real estate salesman in a former life (for the last six months). My friend recently did research that shows the true inflation numbers in the US for October 2005 are closer to 10-12%. The way the FEDS figure it is not at all real world. I heard six days ago on the news that a key inflation gage hit a high that has not been reached for 25 years. Do not expect the FED to stop tightenning any time soon. This will topple the real estate markets and probably set off a new round of US recession. The only thing that has been solid in the US for the last two years has been real estate, but now that will be going under. Warren Buffet just sold his Cal home and warns to get out of real estate, and Volker and others are investing in Asia now.
Also, I did not say Gold/Silver/Platinum ARE things people use, I said "things people use OR gold/silver/platinum".
I'm from the same school of thought you are. And will be bringing all the nothing I have down to Nica soon. Soon ENOUGH? I dunno.
-Carl
Organic
I'm all for that. Everything feels plastic here in the US. You pay LESS for your food after they put on the pesticides and chemicals than for the organic stuff. In Nica, it's ALL organic (K, mostly all) by default. No credit cards to pay 64% interest on. Do everything by the sweat of your back. I guess there is less sweat labor here when they put on the chemicals, and the laws of supply and demand make the non-organics less expensive. But I figure, if a bug won't eat it, WHY SHOULD I????
I find it very odd that Nicans are itching to get up here, and we that have been here and done that are itching to get down there! The fact is, humans are never happy doing just one thing for long periods of time. Or is it that the materialist myths are just not true?
A major thing for me is burn out. I burned out on my software career ages ago. Now I just want to read books, garden and do what Miskito Alan does with the zinc roofing.
-Carl
My Advice to Carl Christy
Miskito Alan says to sell while the getting out is good and don't wait for the "housing.com debacle" and get the hell to Nicaragua.
Just my advice and I could (like Dennis Miller & "Izod John") be wrong.
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