Et Tu, Hyscience?

Hyscience has succumbed to the temptation to blame the messenger:

With that in mind, and after reading about Exxon Mobil's "in your face greed" and their $400 million, share of the booty awarded to their CEO (one Democratic Senator called it a "shameful display of greed"), I've decided to do two things - establish a new category on this blog entitled "corporate greed", and never never never ever buy anything from Exxon Mobil or it's subsidiaries for the rest of my life. I suggest you do the same, and pass it around.

And BTW, we need to wise up and stop falling for the line about higher crude oil prices pushing up gasoline costs, or the one about demand having anything to do with it, - that's a complet line of crap. Think about it, those oil prices are not fueled by actual market demand - they're driven by pure speculation. As for the gasoline prices, they're being fueled now by nothing but corporate greed. Otherwise, how in the hell can gasoline prices be so damned high, oil prices be sky high, and AT THE SAME TIME Corporate profits are going even higher? So high that Exxon Mobil GIVES AWAY an $400 million to their CEO, money which otherwise would have gone to their shareholders. The point here is not where the money went - it's the fact that they made so much money in the first place while consumers end up with far less in their pockets.

In order to complain about the greed of energy companies, you must show the greed has done some damage. If greed is the cause of rising gasoline prices, then falling gasoline prices (which we had in the 1980s) must have been caused by lack of greed. Since, in the real world, the people who run energy companies are always greedy, rising and falling gasoline prices must have some other cause.

I won't do more than mention that, if the speculators are right, gasoline prices will increase in the future and we should start using less gasoline now. If the the excess oil income goes to Exxon instead of kleptocrats in the Middle East, that's even better. I doubt if Exxon will pay for terrorism.

The only worrisome part …

… is that the speculators might not be driven by greed. Since the President's approval ratings prices move opposite to gasoline prices, a determined speculator might be bidding up prices now to see after a Democratic Congress gets elected. The speculator in question will lose money but may feel that is worth it.