(Econ) 4 questions.

>> Wall Street predictions are   that the big oil companies are going   to report big profits this quarter   and thus we can predict something else big.   In editorials, and on Capitol Hill, there will be cries   to have big new taxes on the oil companies.   Oil company executives will be lambasted in big hearings   and the witch hunt will be one.   But wait a second!   The oil companies don't set the world price of oil.   That's set in trading rooms and bank houses in New York   and London by young guys who make zillions each year.   There's absolutely no evidence   that the oil companies are colluding to fix prices   at artificially high levels.   Yes, oil and gasoline prices rose a lot after Katrina.   But that's because producing   and refining capacity fell off drastically   after the storm damage and thus the traders,   sensing shortage, drove up the price.   The oil companies benefitted from this rise in price,   but there have been plenty of times when the prices plummeted   and the oil companies have taken it on the chin.   When the world price of oil falls, pump prices fall too   and they've fallen dramatically since Katrina.   Are the oil companies making obscene profits?   No. As a general rule, they have profit margins far lower   than the big banks or high tech companies   and even below the average of large companies generally.   And anyway, profit is not a dirty word.   This is a free market country.   We're supposed to like profits.   The oil companies and [inaudible] search for more oil,   to refine it, to get it into my car,   and to pay its stockholders a dividend.   Is it bad to pay a dividend to a widow or a retiree?   I don't think so.   And what about this?   When I buy gas and it has to be brought from Nigeria or Libya   or Indonesia and great risk, refined, add huge taxes on it,   and then brought to my gas station, it costs less per ounce   than a bottle of this water that I get at my local grocery store.   Why doesn't anyone mention that?   How about oil executive pay?   Is it criminally high?   Well, it's a lot more than mine, but it's a joke compared   with Wall Street pay and Hollywood pay.   And what the heck does any movie star do that's even remotely   as valuable as powering this whole nation   and keeping the wheels of the nation moving?   I have the sneaking suspicion, that this hatred   of the oil companies is largely for the same reason   that our teenagers hate us, their parents because they're   so dependent on us, they respond with anger.   But senators are not supposed to be teenagers   and neither are newspapers.   Let's get this right.   The oil companies are not our moms and dads.   They're in business to make money.   But they do it fair and square and without them,   we would be in very bad shape.