kirisutogomen: (lifeboat)
Very nice NYTimes interactive on corporate taxes

A few random observations:

The numbers are totals from a six year period from 2007 to 2012.

"Effective tax rate" is simply total taxes paid divided by total profit. Some companies that lost money still paid a lot of tax, the extreme example being AIG, whose net six-year profit was negative $83 billion but still paid $8 billion in taxes (a weird case, of course, because the US government owned them for a bit in the middle there). Citigroup had a net loss of $24 billion over the period but paid $20 billion in taxes.

Just recently Apple got reamed for paying less tax than some guys thought they should, but their effective tax rate is roughly comparable to IBM, Google, GE, and Coca Cola, and well above Verizon, Boeing, Amazon, or Ford.

A year or two ago there was a lot of yakking about how we needed to close tax "loopholes" for Big Oil. All the blather never resulted in any change, but Big Oil seems to have been paying a lot of tax already. ConocoPhilips paid $58 billion in taxes on $79 billion profit, Chevron paid $85 billion on $220 billion, and ExxonMobil $146 billion on $395 billion. Unfortunately the chart only includes S&P 500 companies, so Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum do not appear.
kirisutogomen: (Default)
is a dork.
U.S. Rep Edward Markey yesterday demanded that President Bush take steps to control rising gasoline and oil prices....Markey accused the president of standing idly by as OPEC nations raise prices and move forward with a plan to cut oil production


John Kerry is yapping in a similarly idiotic way. He says he'd divert oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase supply. Hey, you think there's a reason we call it "Strategic"? It's not supposed to be a big vat of oil to tap into anytime SUV owners start whining about having to pay for the gasoline they're using. It's there for serious reasons. Tapping into it because you don't like the price of unleaded is irresponsible and sets a dangerous precedent.

At local gas pumps, drivers filled their tanks and shelled out cash -- reluctantly. "It costs about 40 bucks for this baby," said Framingham resident David Grinere, filling his Lexus LX470 at a Shell station on Rte. 9 in Framingham. Grinere said he is resigned to paying high prices and does not regret buying his SUV despite their reputation as gas-guzzlers. "What can I do?" he said. "I need it for the family. It's a necessary evil."


Ahem. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? Were you raised by Sea Monkeys(TM)? Your Lexus SUV is "necessary"???

OK, I'm now officially in favor of at least another 50 cents a gallon on the gas tax. These morons need to get slapped around until they get a clue, or at least shut up.

Kerry, meanwhile, is whining about the greed of Big Oil and blaming Dick Cheney for consulting energy companies when the administration was writing their energy policy. Say what? I'm sick of people complaining about corporate "greed". These aren't charities. The world doesn't work if corporations don't try to make a profit. Haven't we had enough examples of that recently? And are we supposed to formulate policy without talking to anybody who knows anything about the subject matter? Besides, has Kerry read the energy policy? As it turns out, it's mostly about conservation strategies and alternative fuels. Huh. Big Oil is pretty stupid if that's what they got for all their Seekrit meetings with the veep.

“I’ll use real diplomacy to do what George Bush hasn’t – pressure OPEC to start providing more oil,” said Kerry....."Under my plan....our young men and women will never have to fight and die for foreign oil."


Yeah? What's this pressure going to consist of? Threatening to invade? Oh, wait. Liberals don't like going to war for oil. You know, weird thing about this supposed "war for oil" we just had. If that was a war for oil, why did oil prices go up? Why is all the oil revenue going to building Iraqi infrastructure? Why are we spending several times more money on roads, schools, hospitals, police traiing, etc. for Iraqis than the value of all the oil they're pumping?

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