Windfall Profit Tax and Dummies

I have a lot of hippie-liberal friends. They’re okay, but they’re a bit dogmatic. That would be fine; but, they’re a bit stupid about it. The thing that as been driving me crazy is the liberals going around clamoring for a ‘windfall profit tax.’ Whenever I hear someone talking about this panacea of American economic woes, all I hear is ‘I’m stupid.’

Why am I so down on the Windfall Profit Tax? Am I just a Right-Wing Nut Job? Am I a shill for Big Oil? Do I like to see the little man get crushed? (Okay, okay, okay, I do like to see the little man get crushed, but the others are false) No, it is just that I see through this deceptive tripe.

The argument for the Windfall Profit Tax on Big Oil is flawed. It presumes that the level of profit the Big Oil companies are making is excessive. The argument goes like this: Exxon-Mobil made $43.6 billion in profit over the last four quarters. On the face of it, this seems like a huge amount… hell, that is more than the GDP of most of the countries on earth. I argue that, that amount of profit is not a ‘windfall’; but, rather, the right amount of profit for Exxon-Mobil to be making. I took the time to look up the Revenue and the Net Income of Exxon-Mobile and 27 other name companies. Exxon-Mobile had $473.9B in revenue and $43.6B in net income, for a profit margin of 9.2%. For all 28 companies, the total revenue was $2.523 trillion with net income of $247.7 billion, for a profit margin of 9.8%. I argue that Exxon-Mobile isn’t any more profitable than these successful, name companies; it is just that the cost of their raw materials (namely, oil) has gone up tremendously over the past few years and they have raised prices to keep their profit margins inline.

Now, there will be some idiots out there that will have the counter argument of: why don’t they lower their profit margins so gas is cheaper and the common man would be hurt as much by the rising cost of oil? This argument has all of the trappings of Leftist quackery: it almost sounds logical, it is populist, and it is, in the end, suicidal. If a company lowered its profit margin, the company’s investors would pull their capital out of the company. It would be similar if you or I made 9% on a Government Bond we bought for $10,000; but when we bought $100,000,000 worth of bonds, the Government came back and said something like this: Well, you were happy with your $900 before, and we don’t want to pay you $9,000,000; so we are going to tax your interest on your $100,000,000 until you just have $900 left. How would you feel about the Government turning you 9% investment into a 0 .001% investment?

So, the next time you hear a liberal talking about a ‘Windfall Profit Tax’, point at them and call them stupid. It only takes a little bit of time and effort to see through the silliness.

Below are the companies I looked up, their revenue numbers, and their profit margin. All data was attained by looking at their Income Statements on Yahoo Financial. Profit Margin is defined as Net Income / Gross Revenue. I used the last four available quarters to come up with the annual numbers. (Click on 'photo' to enlarge and see the data)

The Pounding, the Screeching, the Scraping

So, I work in a building that is more of a converted warehouse, than an office building. It is not some cool, old, dare I say, stylish warehouse; but some generic, suburban sprawl warehouse. This isn’t a bad thing, on most days. It is new, very clean, open, and nice. The front half of the building was converted to office space so that a couple of business units could have offices away from our sister company. Also, the platform (bigger than a business unit, still too small to be our own division) has its HQ here.

Here is where the problem, the building is so nice, and the old, beat up building our sister company has is so, well, not nice, that all of the Platform level employees want an office here; and the business units that share the space want more space. So, what to do, right? Well, the warehouse part of it is used to story inventory (it’s a warehouse, after all) and do electrical component integration. So, we took part of the space where the component integration is done, and are making more warehouse space.

So, here is where it becomes a problem. My office is RIGHT next to where the remodeling is going on. I see various construction guys walking past my office all day. Some speaking English, a lot speaking Spanish, especially the drywall crew. The framing of the walls was okay, most putting anchor bolts down, and putting the metal studs up, some noise, but not too bad. Monday sucked, a lot, because they drywall crew was putting drywall screw after drywall screw into the metal studs. Reetch! Reetch! Reeetch! All the goddamn day long. It was horrible. Yesterday was an extension of Tuesday: Reetch! Today started off with me watching some guy on stilts mud and old doorway that was closed. As I allergic to dust, I am not looking forward, at all, to when they sand the drywall.

All through out the day, I hear various noises associated with building office space: cutting, screwing, hammering, et al. I gave me a headache Monday, and if there is too much dust in the air, it will give me one today. I’m glad that I scheduled my self to visit the US HQ for US business unit.

Later,

B

Gold Medals, and the like

I have to admit, I really don't care about the Summer Olympics.

The big story is if Michael Phelps can get eight gold medals; and people are saying if he does that may be the biggest achievement in sports ever. First, swimming is not a sport, it is an athletic event. The difference is that if one can make the other actively lose, it’s a sport; otherwise, it’s an athletic event. Second, it isn’t even the greatest Olympic accomplishment ever, the Dream Team was more dominant than Phelps, Aleksandr Karelin’s dominance in Greco-roman wrestling was greater, boxing is replete with wars that were/are much more engaging than this.

I also could care less about the Redeem Team. I think it is neat that some NBA players decided that they could be just unselfish enough to represent the Red, White, and Blue; and that they’ll kick ass. However; I just can’t get into the world’s best pound on the masses. If they win, yeah, the expectations are met, but that’s all…. no great victory, just met expectations.

I care not for gymnastics. Again, great athletes, but not a sport. Plus it’s participants look like emaciated pre-pubescent girls, and overly muscular effete guys. Track and field is much the same, but the female participants look like butch badasses. And, no matter how fast those 100M guys go, I can beat them with my truck.

I have particular distaste for rowing. An exercise should not be an Olympic event, even if it is the sport of the Ivy Leagues. Ditto for weightlifting, if I wanted to see a strongman competition, I could watch ESPN2 late night.

I think I were to watch the Olympics I would watch judo, wrestling, and boxing because, well, I like violence. I would watch women’s beach volleyball, because they prance around in bikinis that appear to be a size too small. I might BMX cycling on the odd chance that one of those dumb bastards might wreck, real bad like.

Until the Olympics is over, I suppose I’ll be regulated to renting movies and watching re-run of Law and Order on TNT.

In 2010 I’ll watch the winter Olympics as there is nothing better than Olympic Hockey. Well College football is, but it happens every fall.

Peace out,

B

Is the HRC really Jason

Remember Jason, the bad guy from all of those Friday the 13th movies? No matter how many times you killed his ass, he kept coming back to kill underage drinkers and promiscuous teenagers. I think Hillary Rodham Clinton might be the real life Jason.

She just wouldn’t die and June, and with her new editorial piece in the WSJ she has put herself back into the national political scene. Factor that with Slick Willy’s comments from the weekend, and it seems like the HRC is setting up the DNC convention for a coup; or, (this is where my cynical nature really comes into play) she is trying to help Obama lose so she can be the nominee in 2012.


Hmmm, maybe hockey masks and machetes have been replaced by blue pantsuits and political operatives.

Later,

B

Why was I even worried?

Last time at this year, I had dropped some coin on the John McCain Presidential Campaign and I thought to myself, “Man, I like the guy, and I think he’ll be the best leader, but it seems like he is dead in the water.” Then the Campaign called asking for more money, and I thought, “Am I sending good money after bad?” (BTW, good money after bad is a time honored Reschly tradition)

Well you know how this story ends up: Johnny Mac stays strong, reiterates his message, and delivers crucial wins in crucial states and wins the Republican nomination.

So, I must be a whimpering moron. Everyone was writing J.McC. off for the general election. Everybody and their brother were saying it was going to be Obama in a landslide. The doom and gloom talk about the McCain campaign was so intense, that my loyalty was beginning to be shaken.

Then, as if it were a pedantic Rocky movie, the McCain Campaign started counterpunching and hurting the Obama Campaign. The McCain Campaign is attacking the Obama Campaign using, well, attack ads. The weird thing is that all the Obama Campaign can do is defend. If the Obama Campaign can ever get on the offensive, it will be worse than the beating Draggo put on Apollo Creed. But, and there is a but at this point, the Obama Campaign seems unable to take the initiative – they’re not a dollar short, but they are four or five days short. Weird.

I am optimistic about McCain’s chances (Zogby has McCain up 42 to 41 now) but I have to remember than, despite a great performance, Rocky lost to Apollo in the first Rocky.

Later,

B

Barack is the Democrat's Christ

My conservative friends and I were sitting around talking about the election. now, most of us know, and admit, that we are in for a terrible November. We were talking about the campaign, and we were talking about Barack's speeches. Then my friend, Scott, started going off, "That guy is going to save the world and heal my soul. Ever listened to one of his speeches? He promises you everything. Paying too much for gas? (He throws his hands up in the air, almost giving the touchdown signal) Barack Obama. Don't have a job? (TD signal) Barack Obama. Don't want a job? (TD signal) Barack Obama. Don't want to pay support to your baby mama? (TD signal) Barack Obama. Got the gout? (TD signal) Barack Obama. Wrecked your car? (TD signal) Barack Obama."

Needless to say, that was cracking my shit up. Also, our liberal friends we un-impressed. They would try to make a point, but one of would throw up the touchdown signal and say "Barack Obama". For the balance of the night, anytime anyone would talk negative, or talk about a problem; yup, you guessed it, touchdown signal and "Barack Obama".

Later,

B

P.S. If you need to ask what the touchdown signal is, don't talk to me.