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U.S. recession: A classic 12-act tragedy
Market Watch ^ | March 4, 2008 | Paul B. Farrell

Posted on 03/09/2008 2:43:35 PM PDT by fweingart

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- The buck stops here: This is Bush's recession, his legacy.

It could be a chapter in a future edition of Jacob Weisberg's "The Bush Tragedy," with new comparisons to "Henry V" and other great Shakespearean tragedies. In a few sentences, the opening lines could highlight why this is now Bush's recession, and his alone.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 110th; antibushrant; economy; pelosi; recession; soros; ubelongtodu; wrongmessagenboard
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To: ex-snook

Whether we have a formal declaration of war or something less than that doesn’t change the fact that we are at war. To win this war we don’t need a draft, or rationing, and if the Chinese want to finance it for us it’s fine with me.

As far as the “stimulus” check we’ll be receiving later this spring it is nothing more than an increase in the personal exemption. It may not be perfect but it’s better than nothing. I do not believe in “shared pain is good” economics.


141 posted on 03/09/2008 5:33:53 PM PDT by Oklahoma
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To: woofie
If I didn't know any different I would think I had been reading post on DU. Gee what a bunch of depressing posts.
142 posted on 03/09/2008 5:35:51 PM PDT by kempo (H)
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To: B4Ranch; RightWhale
I hope that is true. Don't you RightWhale?

"America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant."

143 posted on 03/09/2008 5:36:30 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: kempo

For some the “Sky is always falling” here on Free Republic.

It wouldn’t surprise me if some post on DU, too.


144 posted on 03/09/2008 5:41:02 PM PDT by Oklahoma
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To: kempo
If I didn't know any different I would think I had been reading post on DU. Gee what a bunch of depressing posts.

Election year on FR. A substantial amount of the posts on this thread are probably bought and paid for by the DNC.

145 posted on 03/09/2008 5:41:27 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Gondring
Here's a nice summary of the oil industry and their "massive" profits. Saw it on townhall.com

When it comes to public hatred of big business, there’s no better target than oil companies. This hatred has been all the more intense since Exxon Mobil announced last year’s net income at $40.6 billion, the largest-ever profit for a publicly-traded company. With the threat of recession looming, many policymakers have been tempted to pay for relief measures by raising taxes on “Big Oil”—including the House’s recent bill rolling back tax deductions on integrated oil companies (though leaving them in place for other companies). Understandable as this impulse may be, it is a bad idea for average Americans. If the government tries to “do something” about record oil profits, it won’t provide meaningful relief revenue, but will certainly raise the price at the pump.

Part of the reason for giant oil profits is that the industry itself is huge. But viewed in relative terms, oil and gas earnings are less impressive. The industry’s net profit per dollar of revenue was just under 9 cents, compared to 13 cents for the S&P 500, meaning the “markup” for the oil and gas industry is below average.

Granted, total profits reported by these companies will be large, because the industry volume is enormous. But why did the integrated oil majors do so well in 2007? The answer is record oil prices, which are set by supply and demand on the world market. The average price of crude was $72.30 per barrel in 2007, compared to a historical average of $25.95 during the period 1986 – 2006. This explains why not only Exxon Mobil, but most of its competitors, had strong years: Royal Dutch Shell earned $31.3 billion, Chevron earned $18.7 billion, and ConocoPhillips came in with a respectable $11.9 billion annual profit.

So now we’ve pushed back the problem one step, and we have to ask, Why were oil prices so high last year? Perhaps the greedy oil companies colluded to restrict supply, and stick it to the helpless consumers!

The problem with this theory is that the supply of oil is also at an all-time high. The worldwide average number of barrels produced per day was an estimated 84.8 million in 2007, compared to 72.4 million during the period 1986 – 2006. The oil industry responds to high prices just as any other industry does. When the price of a product goes up, companies have the incentive to sell more of it.

High oil prices in recent years are caused not by supply restrictions, but by huge increases in demand. As the economies of places such as China and India boom, they draw oil and other commodities to them. Higher market prices signal the increased scarcity of these resources, causing businesses and consumers around the world to economize more carefully in their usage, whether that means finding alternate production techniques or carpooling to work. At the same time, the high prices give incentives to locate and develop more oil reserves. Given the economic realities, these outcomes are exactly what we want to happen.

Whether or not one views these market forces as benign, jacking up taxes on oil companies will only make things worse. When you raise taxes on an activity, people engage in less of it; that’s the whole point of sin taxes on liquor and cigarettes. But in this case, we’re taxing the companies who produce oil – meaning less production and higher consumer prices.

Raising taxes on the production of oil will reduce its supply, causing oil and gasoline prices to rise even further. They sometimes call it a “windfall” tax, but in truth crude oil doesn’t grow on trees. It can take over a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment to find and prepare an oil field for large-scale production.

Oil companies are already paying exorbitant tax bills. In 2006, the industry paid $81 billion in income taxes, and almost certainly paid more in 2007 as profits were higher. (The industry data for 2007 have not yet been compiled.)

I note that Exxon pays the equivalant in one year of the taxes paid by 1/2 !!! of US taxpayers. I've noted before that Hannity likes to tout that oil companies don't pay taxes, when in actual fact they pay huge taxes, but clearly do pass them on to taxpayers. There is a difference.

146 posted on 03/09/2008 5:44:05 PM PDT by chiller (It's official....I've moved to the Fred.....oops....back to Mitt! ...ooops undecided)
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To: B4Ranch

I forgot to mention that. Also the recently discovered massive natural gas reserves under Pennsylvania. Range Resources believes this could be the largest discovery in 20-30 years.

The North Dakota oil and Penn natural gas are only able to be tapped with the new technolgy. There is still plenty of conventional fields left to discover and exploit. The people of our country have been brainwashed into the ‘peak’ oil theroy and told even if we tap this field or that it will only lessen our dependance on foreign oil x %. It is that thinking that got us in this mess. We can’t use eco friendly techniques to drill ANWR, but the Russians can use what ever method they choose to despoil Siberia. Where are the enviro wackos on the Chinese destroying their near coastal waters in their search for oil? It is always America’s fault, and America’s responsibility to be the only one to clean the air, to clean the water, to prevent the earth from getting a fever. Makes me sick.


147 posted on 03/09/2008 5:44:15 PM PDT by milwguy (........)
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To: milwguy

I wish Chevron the best with its process.


148 posted on 03/09/2008 5:44:53 PM PDT by Clara Lou (This is how it is this election cycle: Choose your poison.)
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To: 1rudeboy
Election year on FR. A substantial amount of the posts on this thread are probably bought and paid for by the DNC.

Which posts would that be?

149 posted on 03/09/2008 5:45:25 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: bjs1779

If you have to ask . . . .


150 posted on 03/09/2008 5:48:56 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Clara Lou

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/03/chevron-unveils.html

Chevron Unveils New Refining Technology That Converts Ultra-Heavy Oil Into Fuel; Up to 100% Conversion
7 March 2008

Chevron’s basic heavy-oil conversion process. The key is the preparation of the highly active catalyst incorporating the use of vacuum gas oil (vacuum resid). Click to enlarge.
Chevron Corporation plans to build a pre-commercial plant at its refinery in Pascagoula, Miss., to test the technical and economic viability of a new heavy-oil upgrading technology called Vacuum Resid Slurry Hydrocracking (VRSH). VRSH has the potential to significantly increase yields of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from heavy and ultra-heavy crude oils and could be used to increase and upgrade production of heavy oil resources, according to Chevron


151 posted on 03/09/2008 5:49:54 PM PDT by milwguy (........)
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To: B4Ranch

Your little factoid alone should drop oil prices...shouldn’t it????


152 posted on 03/09/2008 5:52:26 PM PDT by goodnesswins (Being Challenged Builds Character; Being Coddled Destroys Character)
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To: 1rudeboy
If you have to ask . . . .

You got me. I am a DEMOCRAT ! Nice detective work my friend!

153 posted on 03/09/2008 5:55:10 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: milwguy

I had an interesting experience about 3 weeks ago. I was standing in line at the supermarket with a pretty full cart.

There was a fellow in a wheelchair behind me who just had a couple things, so I asked him if he wanted to go first, because the line was long.

He said no, he was in no hurry, he was just enjoying himself, and had just retired from 25 tears of work up north.

He had had an aneurysm on his aorta and they fixed it but had to take it easy.

He had been a hydraulic engineer.
In Alaska.
At Prudhoe Bay.

I talked to him long enough to know that HE KNEW what he was talking about. He said he saw samples of oil that were so pure they practically looked like Wesson corn oil.

It would amaze him if we’ve gotten even two percent of what’s up there.

According to him, it’s very rare for any exploration to go on and NOT FIND oil. It’s ALL OVER the Alaska coastline and surveys in the Arctic ocean CONSISTENTLY show VAST quantities of oil.

A very interesting chat... and I believe him!


154 posted on 03/09/2008 5:56:19 PM PDT by djf (She's filing her nails while they're draggin the lake....)
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To: bjs1779
Why don't you come over to the econ threads, where I mostly reside. I'll prove you are a Democrat at my leisure, if that truly is the case.
155 posted on 03/09/2008 6:01:16 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
Why don't you come over to the econ threads, where I mostly reside. I'll prove you are a Democrat at my leisure, if that truly is the case.

Why don't you prove it right here?

156 posted on 03/09/2008 6:04:53 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: bjs1779

Prove what? That you are a Democrat? Are you really that stupid?


157 posted on 03/09/2008 6:06:26 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
Prove what? That you are a Democrat? Are you really that stupid?

Once again you got me.

158 posted on 03/09/2008 6:14:29 PM PDT by bjs1779
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To: fweingart

As long as your studying the congress of the 1890s, take a look at how many constituents there were per house member.

Congress people need large staffs to keep up with their overly large districts. The failure to have the house of representatives keep up with the growth of the general population turns them from the house of the people they were intended to be into out-of-touch elites.


159 posted on 03/09/2008 6:33:58 PM PDT by Flying Circus
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To: EternalVigilance

Right. You’ll have to wait until about July 15th to have been told we had two quarters of negative growth. Are you retired or filthy rich? Either way, better get yourself some of that loot in gold and silver and some cash as well. This year we’ll muddle through. Next year will see a collapse of the fiat banking system. It will come back, but it’s gonna hurt, ouch.


160 posted on 03/09/2008 6:34:02 PM PDT by iThinkBig
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