[ale] [OT][Way OT] Industrial Power Question - Further OT - Oil companies

[Jeff Lightner]

What crap!

Book value of capital assets does not increase while they are held.  You
would only account for "revenue" on disposing of the assets (e.g. by
selling them).   In fact book value of most capital assets is
"depreciated" even if the underlying asset is in fact appreciating in
real life so it would be an expense rather than a revenue item.

The capacity for many people to believe they aren't being raped while
the manhood is still up their anuses is truly astounding to me.

The reason the profits went up is simple:  The base price of oil went up
and they adjusted retail prices accordingly to keep the same "margin".  

Arguing about why the base price of oil went up is something else
altogether.  The oil companies and others will tell you that it was
"speculators" in the commodity markets.  I would suggest if you traced
those "speculators" you'd find many of them worked for the self same oil
companies that bemoan such speculation. 

P.S.  In a former life I was a Financial Controller for a multi-million
dollar enterprise. 

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Greg
Freemyer
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 3:03 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] [OT][Way OT] Industrial Power Question

> You can take the tinfoil beanie off on this one. Exxon et
> al are not going to really push solar because solar doesn't
> show up even as a rounding error on their business models.
> The bosses are charged with making their 10% profit without
> a whole lot of risk. Risky profit is going to take a much
> higher level of profit to be worthwhile, and most solar
> schemes that I've heard of are going to take 10 years to
> turn their profit. Not exactly a deal maker. Plus a huge
> percentage of our population really really wants to show
> off with a SUV...

I was talking to a friend in the oil industry over the weekend.

He said Exxon made so much money this year because the "value" of all
their properties went up and they were smart enough not to buy any new
properties during the summer when everything was being valued based on
$150/barrel oil.

OTOH, several of the other big oil firms were not so lucky and have a
bunch of properties they way over paid for on their books now.

Assuming he knows what he's talking about, the whole "profits" issue
for Exxon last year is way overblown.

Greg
-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
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