Did anyone catch the news interview with the CEO of Shell Oil Company?
The claim of the oil companies is that they have a cyclical business. Some days the fuel is cheap; other days it’s expensive. They have to go out and find it, and that takes investment. They even out the business cycle by taking profits when they have them and investing them in exploration. If we take their profits, they won’t be able to do that exploration, and that’s what would lead to the fuel shortage. It’s not sabotage; it’s just a natural effect of a cyclical business that clipping them on the upturn will mean that the downturns are worse. They also claim, by the way, that their profits are so large in absolute terms only because the companies are so large. The actual percentage of profit is actually very small, because of all of that oil exploration and extraction costs. They say that their profits are only 8% of revenue, which is actually more or less in keeping with other large companies. Not that I’m buying it, mind you. They said the same things about “cyclical businesses” w
