Obscene Profits, Flagrant Price Fixing by Big Oil

SeeSawing Prices, Obscene Profits, Media Manipulation Prove Fuel Cost Fixing

By Cheryl Seal

In the "How stupid do the NeoCons think we are?" department: This week it was announced that gasoline prices had dropped to as low as less than $2.50 in some areas. Of course, no one will complain about any drop in price. However, the timing of the drop is suspicious to say the least. It comes right after the news hit that the US major oil companies had posted obscene profits for the past quarter. and the week after the findings of the Oil-for-Food scandal probe were announced. The report revealed that 2,200 corporations had paid a total of $2 BILLION to Saddam Hussein in kick backs to get hold of oil from Iraq that was supposed to be traded for food. What is going to come out in the next week or two is the list of companies involved, and on it you will find Exxon, Chevron, El Paso, Valero Energy, and other corporations currently involved in price-gouging the US public.

The excuse for price gouging is, of course, the series of Gulf of Mexcio hurricanes that took out dozens of oil rigs and disabled some refineries. But if these storms were indeed a valid excuse for jacking up prices to their recent record-high levels, then WHY would oil companies be posting record profits at the same time? Last week ExxonMobil posted the hugest quarterly profit IN HISTORY for any US corporation - an obscene $9.9 BILLION. So if the oil/gas price increases were fair - deraying, as the corporations claim, the cost of the storms - we would expect to see the companies either breaking even or posting decreased profits at the very least. We most certainly would not expect their profits to break records! And, we would not be expecting gasoline prices to be going up and down the scale like an opera singer in training in response to every Bush administration political crisis.

The media of course, as ever, is involved up to its eyebrows in the gas-price-as-diversion-and/or-political carrot scam. On AOL's newspage (one of the 5 most popular news sources in the US, as well as one of the most Bush administration-manipulated) you will typically see news of a gas price drop of so much as a nickel splashed across the top of the page, while stories the administration wants to push into the background are mere footnotes. The morning of 10/31, for example, there was no mention on the main page (through noon) of the six US soldiers just killed in Iraq. Rather strange for a so-called "news site," doncha think?

Here's the media modus operandi: play down the price hikes and/or emphasize the "hurricanes as excuse" theme when announcing new gas/oil price highs. Then, as soon as these prices drop a few cents, make a near-celebratory event out of it - as if announcing lottery winners! The idea is to try to "normalize" gas prices rising to over $3.00 in a so short a time span by making tiny drops from outrageously inflated prices seem like such a big gift that we're too grateful to complain about the overall hike!

Take a look at this headline from CNNMoney.com.

Exxon's $10B net a U.S. corporate record
The oil company gains from soaring oil and gas prices, but falls short of estimates
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/27/news/fortune500/exxon.reut/

The fact that the corporation snagged $10 BILLION out of US consumer pockets is downplayed with the subheadline, which points out that the profit "falls short of estimates." So (we are supposed to think) $10 billion's not so bad - it COULD have been worse!

In any case, don't expect to see any exposés of oil company price-rigging in the US media. Alas, the signs of media awakening that happened after Katrina have died away as the NeoCon bosses jerk the reins tighter. Instead, everything is sliding back into the mire of "business as usual." Even NBC's "blog" "The Daily Nightly" has gone, in one month, from promising to offer real insights on current events to a tepid series of shallow commentaries designed not to challenge or offend anyone, especially anyone in the Bush administration. A big disappointment, but not unexpected. Sigh.

On the bright side, I think the Bush administration and its cronies in the oil industry and media will soon discover that the American public is not quite as stupid as they had hoped - and their memories not so short.

http://cherylsealreports.bravehost.com/flagrantpricefixing.html