Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Pandering to the voters--The Windfall Profits Tax

Don't be fooled by Obama's threats. And I can't say McCain's doing much better on this issue (how does a gallon of beer compare in cost to a gallon of gas?). Or those Republicans who fell in place with their Democrat buddies in Congress. We the people own the oil companies.
    Here's what Robert J. Shapiro (Clinton Secretary of Commerce) had to say about the ownership of 98.5% of oil company shares: "The data show that ownership of industry shares is broadly middle class, with the majority of industry shares held by institutional investors, often on behalf of millions of Americans through mutual funds, pension funds and individual retirement accounts."

    "Almost 43 percent of oil and natural gas company shares are owned by mutual funds and asset management companies that have mutual funds. Mutual funds manage accounts for 55 million U.S. households with a median income of $68,700.

    Twenty seven percent of shares are owned by other institutional investors like pension funds. In 2004, more than 2,600 pension funds run by federal, state and local governments held almost $64 billion in shares of U.S. oil and natural gas companies. These funds represent the major retirement security for the nation's current and retired soldiers, teachers, and police and fire personnel at every level of government.

    Fourteen percent of shares are held in IRA and other personal retirement accounts. Forty five million U.S. households have IRA and other personal retirement accounts, with an average account value of just over $22,000." From Neal Boortz column, June 11

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Windfall? That means that they did nothing to earn the profits. It seems to me that the oil companies (and US Oil companies are not the only players see below) do indeed do something - they drill, pipe, transport, refine, and distribute the oil we use as gasoline, motor oil, LP gas, jet fuel, chemicals, and plastics.

They are not windfall profits, they are the legitimate profits of a business - a business I bet 90% of Americans have a piece of in their IRAs, retirement plans, mutual funds, or other equities.

Firm Country Assets ($M USD)

ExxonMobil USA 242,082
Shell NL 269,470
BP UK 236,076
Gazprom OAO RUS 205,761
ConocoPhil US 177,757
Total SA FR 157,219
Chevron USA 148,786
Eni SpA ITA 140,419
PetroChina HK 139,987
P. Brasile BR 129,715
China Pet&Chm HK 96,754
StatoilHyd NOR 84,176
OJSC Oil Co UK 74,805
Repsol YPF ESP 65,309
Neftyanya RUS 59,632
Marathon USA 42,746
Rosneft NK RUS 41,945
Hess USA 26,131
LUKOIL RUS 24,582
Indian Oil IND 23,029
Suncor CAN 22,971
PetroCanada 22,671
Indian Oil IND 21,531
Nippon Mining JPN 17,580

There are plenty more but you get the idea. Companies make profits. Why any of these communists that are running for president feel that they can simply take them is beyond me. Lets take profits of companies I don't own and don't like. UPS comes to mind.

All those figures are from public company filings in 2007.