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9Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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President Biden is trying to rein in the oil companies high prices of gas. While the companies are breaking record profits, and the consumer suffers. While we are waiting for the Trump arraignment Tuesday on 30+ charges, there is other important news, or interesting issues happening around the world. Trump will always have his cuckoo base of about 30%. Throw the bum in jail and get it over with. His mob behavior, his actions as a traitor to the country deserves nothing but prison. His MAGA friends who keep sending him their hard earned dollars, have given him $5 million dollars since the news broke about him getting indicated. The DOJ has reported that they have more evidence that Trump has obstructed justice on his document case. Not that he took the documents but he hid them. And the Jan 6 insurrection plus the Georgia case on elections tampering. Trump is certainly scared and all these are a huge legal risk for Trump. OIL PRICES Oil prices surged as much as 8% at the open after OPEC announced it was slashing output by 1.16 million barrels per day. Brent crude futures last jumped 5.1% to $83.95 a barrel on that news, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures soared 5.2% to $79.64 a barrel.The voluntary cuts will start from May to end 2023, Saudi Arabia announced, saying it was a “precautionary measure” targeted toward stabilizing the oil market. In addition to Saudi Arabia’s output cut of 500,000 barrels per day, other member states have also pledged cuts: the UAE will be cutting output by 144,000 barrels per day, while Quwait, Oman, Iraq, Algeria and Kazakhstan will also be reducing output. The move to do this is to punish the West for the sanctions, the cut could also reverse the decline in inflation, which would “complicate central banks’ rate decisions.” In March, oil prices tumbled to their lowest since December 2021, as traders feared the banking rout could dent global economic growth. The oil cartel and its allies are looking to avoid a repeat of the 2008 crash, citing oil prices crashing from $140 to $35 in six months in that year. So no matter what Biden will get blamed for the oil prices, frankly it’s the oil companies trying to gouge the public. They have made $12-$14 billion in profits in just one quarter, I would venture to say that the oil companies are not hurting, going broke, in need of higher prices other than trying to punish the Biden administration. Five of the West's largest energy companies – Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, Total Energies and Chevron – have reported nearly $200 billion in 2022 profits combined. As the world faced an energy crisis. For companies that chose to exit Russian operations due to the war, there were some costs – with BP, for example, taking charges of $25.5 billion as the result of deciding to exit its investments in Russia. Still, some these same energy giants broke company records for annual profits by the year's end. President Biden is trying to curb he greed of the oil companies, Big Oil just reported record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis," Biden said. "It’s outrageous." Biden also criticized oil companies for using their profits "to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders." He added a proposal to quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks "to encourage long term investments instead." Exxon Mobil: $55.7 billion, BP: $27.7 billion, Shell: $39.87 billion, Total Energies: $36.2 billion, Chevron: $35.5 billion, Saudi Aramco's most profitable quarter was Q2's net income of $48.4 billion – which broke the company's record and marked a 90% jump from earnings seen at the same time in 2021. Aramco reported an additional $42.4 billion for Q3 and $39.5 billion for Q1. Meanwhile, China-based Sinopec reported net income total of 56.66 billion yuan ($7.81 billion) for January to September of last year, Reuters reported in October, marking a net profit loss of 5.6% for the first nine months of 2022. There is no reason for gas/oil prices to be so high other than for political reasons and greed.
Tammy
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