Exxon Mobil Profit
Rises on Soaring Prices

From the New York Times

Trading Frenzy Adding to Rise in Price of Oil

By JAD MOUAWAD and HEATHER TIMMONS
Published: April 29, 2006
A global economic boom, sharply higher demand, extraordinarily tight supplies and domestic instability in many of the world's top oil-producing countries — in that environment higher oil prices were inevitable.

But crude oil is not merely a physical commodity that fuels the world economy; powers planes, trains and automobiles; heats cities; and provides fuel for electricity. It has also become a valuable financial asset, bought and sold in electronic exchanges by traders around the world. And they, too, have helped push prices higher.

In the latest round of furious buying, hedge funds and other investors have helped propel crude oil prices from around $50 a barrel at the end of 2005 to a record of $75.17 on the New York Mercantile Exchange last week. Back in January 2002, oil was at $18 a barrel.

read more at the new York Times

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Yes John,
I'm afraid we're paying for these "crooks" and we will be paying more for a long time... It's going to be a Loooonnnggg war... Although the new Iraqi government thinks that the US army will get out of Iraq in a couple of years... Fools' promise... If the situation eases so well that no US troops are needed the US (unless there is a drastic change of administration) will find a way, like "providing logistic help" or whatever to stay there for another 25 years... under one form or another... Less US troops? may be... but no less than half of what is there now...

And for other kind of rant on the topic, I thought that our primal grocer's decision to have not one, not two, but three "fool" inquiries into the death of a private in Iraq including his no flight to Australia with Bodybaghdad Airlines, was a superb stroke of senioritising genius while the Minister with the hole in the head, B. Nelson, blames the media for speculating on HIS speculations which contradicted each other, those which he fed the media with in the first place for them to speculate upon... Brilliant...

From the ABC
Costello warns of higher petrol prices
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has warned motorists there is a chance that petrol prices could climb much higher if the situation in Iran worsens.

Iran, which is a major oil exporter, has angered much of the international community by ignoring a deadline to cease work on its nuclear program.

The price of petrol in Australia is already around $1.40 a litre in many areas.

Mr Costello has told Channel 10 that the Government cannot have a countervailing action for major international trends.

"Petrol price rises will come and they will go," he said.

"Let me make this point: let's suppose the situation deteriorates in Iran, then you would expect the petrol price to go up.

read more at the ABC
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Now Gus asks who is creating the "crisis" in Iran...? Let's suppose nothing Mr Costello. Tell you thick-as-thieve mates in Washington to put a sock in their warmongering and start doing some real negotiating... Only then the price of petrol... What am I saying here...? The price of petrol is only linked to profiteering at the moment, the rest is hot air furphy baloney...

Well, since those recalcitrants and evildoers in Iran are now responsible for every future rise in petrol prices, it's a waste of time to look elsewhere. So, at least, the Range-Rover drivers of Higgins can sleep easy tonight. I was out walking the dog when that soothing missive from Saint Peter came across. The words were so restful, I fell asleep on my feet. That's the kind of leadership we want - nothing that will disturb the slumber, or the status quo.

Juan Cole has some good comments:

I'm deeply grateful for Professor Richards' intervention. Just to say that the oil analysts tell me that the market is in fact radically different now than in the 1970s-1990s, and that a key difference is the massive and continuing rise in demand from South and East Asia. I did say that I thought the "security premium" was likely a much bigger part of the price rise than the reduction in Iraq production. I am persuaded that the security premium is a central part of this story and is of course deeply related to Bush administration aggressiveness in the Oil Gulf region.

The clue is China. Perhaps Bush is mad enough to jump the shark, by ignoring Iran, and doing what he really wants to do - declare pre-emptive war on China. If he did, would Rupert Murdoch stick along for the ride?  

Whatever, Costello's aspirations to be PM depend on how well he contributes to the oil wealth of Texan Republicans. 

And "Waterworld" comes after that...

Reading the link to "China" (see blog above ) ... I felt I'd better carry on doing as Phillip Adams did in this weekend's editorial in the Australian... Some thing I do sometimes to allay the misery we inflict, or let others inflict, on the world... Yes, "Singing in the rain" is a beautiful route to beatitude when one is burden by all the crap... Thank you Phillip for an insightful into the many way we Sadisomise the world... But carry on exposing the thieves, the careless and the warmongers, they deserve to be pilloried every day, relentlessly, even if they are our rulers, (especially if they are our rulers)... Then from time to time sing in the shower... You know the song.

In my blog of the 13th of april 06 "dancing at the cole inquiry ...." responding sideways to Miranda's Baby boomers' gyrating days are numbered … I wrote that Gus was dancing in the street and singing in the rain...

Not much in Syderney though to dance under...

From the ABC

Costello cautioned against fuel price predictions
Victoria's peak motoring body has criticised the federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, for speculating on possible increases in the price of petrol.

Mr Costello says there is a chance that the cost of petrol could climb much higher if the situation in Iran worsens.

Iran has angered much of the international community with its nuclear program.

The RACV's government relations spokesman, David Cumming, says the Treasurer does not know whether this will affect petrol prices.

read more at the ABC

Well, Gus, you did mention the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards is living proof of the message from Usama - anyone over 25 is past it.

In his own words: messages from Osama

It's raining in marvellous Melbourne right now.  

I always knew that Keith was a bit of a coconut...

Stones guitarist falls off tree, injuring head
(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-30 10:23
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who fell out of a palm tree and was later involved in a jet ski crash while vacationing in Fiji, has been airlifted to a hospital in New Zealand, local media reported Sunday....

etc...

Gus laments the legs aren't what they used to be... even if you power-walk for Vodafone...

From Al Jazeera

Bomb kills US soldier in Iraq

Sunday 30 April 2006, 0:06 Makka Time, 21:06 GMT

A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq on the day an Iraqi politician said 100,000 families have left their homes due to the country's sectarian fighting.

The American soldier died at about 4pm when a roadside bomb hit his convoy southwest of Baghdad, the military said.

April has been the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq this year with 70 servicemen killed.

Some US officers have suggested the increase in deaths could be due to better weather, making attacks easier

read more at Al jazeera

And while exhorbitant profits are made...

From the Washington Post

Despite Protest, Panel Votes to Cut Budget for Disabled Services
By Karlyn Barker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 30, 2006; Page C07

A D.C. Council committee has cut the proposed budget for the city's mental retardation agency by nearly $15 million, saying that there is still no "credible plan" to improve care for group-home residents -- and that the District is losing millions of dollars because it hasn't set up services that could be paid with federal funds.

Ignoring a last-minute warning from Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) that the cuts would imperil services and reform efforts for the long-troubled agency, the council panel Friday unanimously approved a budget of $61.5 million for fiscal 2007, instead of the $76.4 million requested by the mayor.

Read more at the Washington Post

From the NYT
No Silver Bullet for Gas Prices, Bush Aide Says

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 30, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's new chief of staff said Sunday that the White House plan to address high gasoline prices will have only a modest impact and the ultimate goal must to be reducing dependence on foreign oil.

''This is a very large problem,'' Josh Bolten said on ''Fox News Sunday'' in his first interview since taking over April 14 as Bush's top aide. ''It's built up over many years -- decades, in fact. It's not going to be solved in the short run by some silver bullet.''

Read more at the NYT

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Gus laments: Why do most people in the US think of a solution to a problem as a "bullet, a weapon, a war, a bomb?" Do they think that expediency in finding a solution is akin to killing a vampire or a rogue onion? Or make war on a flim-flam?

Gees, this is serious disfiguration of human ethical thinking that demands proper analysis and proper synthesis and some compassion jam.

And in the case of petrol prices, these brainless monkeys are already blaming past administrations rather than accept that the present El Bonsaiolo administration has created the volatile situation, making it ripe for profit making beyond imagination?

And the little man's spruik is vague and full of words than can do nothing much to arrest the gigantic momentum of oil consumption, when his actions are to the contrary.

’2,400 American servicemen and
100,000 Iraqis have now sacrificed their lives on the altar of corporate
profiteering. Bush has spread his energy war from Central Asia to the Middle
East; increasing the incidents of terrorism by 4 fold. 

At the same time, the American
middle class has been crushed by government malfeasance and diminishing civil
liberties even though well-heeled oil moguls are raking in the largest profits
in history.’ 

Take Back
the Oil Companies

‘Politicians are supposed to work for
everyone," said Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum
Institute. "For years, they've pretended like we didn't even exist. But
today, with this many people from the oil industry right here in our nation's
capital, we're sending an undeniably strong message." 

Oil executives traveled from as far as Irving, TX to attend the event.
Some, such as Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Rex W. Tillerson, said they were
missing important board meetings and sacrificing as much as three days of
vacation time just to be among their fellow oilmen.’ 

Oil Executives March On DC

The Editor,
Sydney Morning Herald.                                            May 24,
2006.

Just ‘follow the money’ (‘Shell
reaps 1.2b, blames oil speculators’, Herald, May 23). 

Shell Australia chairman, Russell
Caplan, can spin as much as he likes about oil speculators, paper barrels, wet
barrels, artificially elevated margins & demand / supply fundamentals, but
it’s his company’s profits that have risen by an obscene 68%, off the backs of
Australian consumers. 

Black gold indeed!

From the ABC

Enron bosses found guilty
Former Enron Corp chief executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were found guilty of lying about their company's troubled finances in one of the biggest US business scandals and could face years in prison.

The jury verdict in a trial that began on January 30 capped a four year long government effort to get those responsible for a corporate collapse into bankruptcy that cost investors billions of dollars, wiped out thousands of jobs and sent shockwaves through Wall Street and Washington.

Lay, 64 and Skilling, 52, who were once lauded as two of the world's top business leaders but later became poster boys for corporate deception, looked shaken when US District Judge Sim Lake read the decision to a packed courtroom.

Skilling looked down as the verdict was read.

Lay sighed heavily and shook his head, as his wife Linda grabbed his arm.

Afterward, Lay's family members swarmed around him, weeping.

He was not crying as he tried to console them, saying, "God's got another plan right now".
........
read more ar the ABC

From Al Jazeera

Bush warns Opec over high oil prices

Tuesday 24 October 2006, 1:42 Makka Time, 22:42 GMT

George Bush, the US president, has warned the oil-producing countries that high crude oil prices could wreck economies and reduce demand for their products.

"I would hope that the Opec nations understand that high prices of oil could wreck economies, and if they wreck economies it means the purchasers will be fewer," Bush said on Monday.
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Gus: Who is this guy trying to kid? Does he think that the OPEC people are dummies? They know how much they can get away with, with or without the approval from the president of the United States. And even if they "wreck economies", these "wrecked" economies,would still buy a lot of petrol and at a higher price, desperately...

Democrats reject US oil subsidies
By James Westhead
BBC News, Washington

The new Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives has voted to reverse one of President George Bush's key awards to the oil industry.

The bill would remove billions of dollars in subsidies to US oil firms.

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Gus: how on earth are the oil companies going to make their outrageous super-billion dollar profits?  Raise the price of crude? A price rise cascading to the consumer at the pump? Or be a bit more frugal as they should be?