by ROCKMAN » Sat 31 May 2014, 23:05:27
Wow! Is all I can say. What a total disconnect from reality IMHO. We'll skip over the predictions of much lower energy costs helping the poor and middle class...we've beat that horse to death numerous times. Let's just focus on the Russians preventing President Obama from destroying ExxonMobil et al. They obviously think there is a Mr. XOM sitting out there raking in all those obscene profits. This is from 2011 but still appropriate:
In early 2010 I wrote an article entitled “There is no Mr. Exxon.” I had hoped that some of our more economically ignorant members of Congress might through some twist of fate chance upon the article and read it in order to expand their understanding of who owns the various oil companies. Of course, to think that our members of Congress are truly as ignorant as they portray themselves to the public in order to mislead them so that they can encourage support for taxing “Big Oil” is best questioning our credulity. Does Congress and the president really think we are that stupid? Perhaps the rhetoric constantly being broadcast and published by the liberal media has managed to mislead a number of our citizen, but certainly not the majority. I hope that this article will help in making the public understand the concept of who “Big Oil” really is.
There is no Mr. Exxon - It was recently reported that ExxonMobil made over $45 Billion in profits in one quarter of one year. “Outrageous!” Congress shrieks. “Outrageous!” many Americans say. How can it be acceptable when so many people are unemployed? Can’t ExxonMobil take a little less profit and lower gas prices? Let’s take a look at the basic economics of capitalism in general and Exxon in particular. First of all, there is no Mr. Exxon! The company is owned by millions of shareholders who are invested either directly, in their pension funds or through their investments in mutual funds. In reality, relatively few shares are owned by the executives of ExxonMobil. It is a rare event when the major holdings of stock in companies are owned by individuals. The largest stakes of shares are owned by pension funds and the very people upset at the large profits may very well be owners in ExxonMobil without knowing it. The present value of investment in ExxonMobil is in excess of 317 billion dollars. In the last quarter of 2009 the ExxonMobil dividend per share was 42 cents for an investment of approximately $65-70 depending of purchase date. This dividend comes to approximately 2.5% return on investment on an annual basis. There is of course the hope among investors that the value of their shares will rise. Great expectations, except that the price may in fact fall just as easily.
[In addition to individuals owning XOM there are over 1900 financial institutions that collectively own about 50% of the company. They include most of the big US banks and insurance companies. So after the POTUS helps to destroy hundreds of $billions in assets of millions of citizens and key financial institutions (despite the best efforts of the Russians to protect them) what's going to be the next Democrat party slogan: You ain't seen nothing yet...now we're going to drown all the puppies and kittens in the country. SO VOTE FOR US!
LOLLLLLLLLLLLL