Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Tuesday tidbits.

Rango.

Charming movie, fun characters (half the fun is trying to figure out who all the flea bitten critters are), nice -- no great -- animation.

Not a huge number of laugh out loud moments, and not as deep and moving as Up! or Toy Story(s).

But a clever movie.

It's also probably the most self-aware, meta-movie I've ever seen.

It literally draws the frame of the picture twice. (And how about Clint's Oscars?)

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Yep. Not a good idea for the DA to go after the Bulletin.

Today's story of new Deputy DA hire Horton, who has lost property to foreclosure and still owes back property taxes.

I think the thing that bothered me the most is that he lives in Pronghorn. I'm sure he'll be looking out for the little guy.

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Come on, now. I'm pretty sure that Libya doesn't account for .50 worth of gas (17th largest producer).

Getting screwed again by the gas companies.

And those poor deluded Tea Partiers have been duped into going after government, instead of the real villains -- Corporations.

They own us.

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The freakin' Barnes and Nobel stock has dropped off the face of the earth. At this point, it's overkill. They were still earning a profit the last I heard. I suspect this is going to have to come back a bit. I'm just hanging in there, trying to avoid selling at the low.

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Wow. The highest selling comic title in February was Green Lantern #62, all of 71 K copies. I can't begin to tell you how bad that is. I mean, that's really down there....

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The writer of Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, wants to hire Charlie Sheen.

As what, head zombie?

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Hack Bend is asking about the status of El Jimador.

I noticed that Wabi Sabi has moved into the space that was Maryjane's and that Maryjane's now has the same address as C.C. McKenzie.... So are they sharing space? This is minus one storefront, even if they are all still in business. Not sure how to specify that on my Comings and Goings list.

Anyone know what's going on?

9 comments:

OHDG said...

don't know... but I think if Wabi Sabi wants to continue to stay in business and profit from their new and more expensive store front, they need to pack it full to the gills like you.

This is my special request for Green Tea Kit Kat.

Duncan McGeary said...

Or were those Golden Globes? Actually, when I think about it those were Golden Globes, which seems even more meta...

Duncan McGeary said...

"Who am I?"

Am I Johnny Depp acting in a movie as a chameleon who is acting a role in a town that is serving as a movie type which is representational to reality?

RDC said...

Hate to tell you Duncan, but oil companies are not omnipotent when it comes to setting short term prices. They can influence it long term by deciding to drill or not, but really do not have much impact short term.

It is really the commodity markets that set the price and in the short term that is more traders and speculators then the oil companies.

Also you need to differentiate between upstream oil companies and down stream oil companies. A high per barrel price helps the up stream operations (think discovery,drilling and pumping) but it pretty much kills the down stream side of the business (think refiners and distribution).

The down stream price, what you see at the pumps is pretty much automatic based upon the commodity price of oil. Which again is determine by the markets, not by the oil companies them selves.

Clearly anytime you have an major event that threatens production, you get an over reaction of the speculators.

You might as well be blaming the farmers because the price of corn is through the ceiling. Of course both are influenced by the government, corn is up because the ethanol subsidies and oil drilling is down because of lease cancellation and the blocking of new permits in the gulf. Both of which are more long term impacts instead of short term.

Duncan McGeary said...

Yet somehow they make all those profits.

RDC said...

Compare their profits to their total sales or for that matter look at return on Capital. A major oil companies profit margin is not that great. Take a look at any of their 10k's. That will give you both measures.


They also put a LOT of capital at risk.

If it is that profitable and/or that easy go start one of your own.

Anonymous said...

Oil companies don't make profits, ... - RDC

[ Exxon and family make some of the biggest profits in the world, ... and certainly have the best lawyers, and certainly have a say on where our USA-IMPERIAL wars are fought. ]

Price at the pump is largely based on what people will pay. Resellers everyday look at the price of the competition in any given area. Some areas even collude as to not undercut. Typically profit on gallon sale is around 5% or lower. Very low margin biz to deliver fuel. I haven't sold fuel since a college kid, but we were only making about 3 cents a gallon I remember that.

The trouble with source oil is that it takes years to develop. What is it now $70-80 a barrel to produce, but how long will it be expensive? Nobody is going to jump into exploration unless its certain that the new price of $105 or higher will stick.

This fucking debate about GULF oil leases tied up makes me sick. The USA doesn't even have that much resources left, we're NOW an importer and always will be, our native oil was long ago exhausted. The problem with deep wells now is that nobody can or wants to insure the shit. Sure go back to giving oil companies a CAP on liability at $100M, but everybody now knows that was a joke given that the GULF-SPILL is costing billions.

Let's get back to Lybia for a moment. The BEST oil in the world, lowest sulfer content on the planet, preferred fuel for the military air-craft of the world. He who controls Libyan oil is the ruler of aviation. But that oil is too good for normal consumer shit.

A few days ago the 'futures' for oil was $200, but that's a speculators game.

I have always prayed for $10+/gal fuel in USA, solve all our traffic problems.

Anonymous said...

Come on, now. I'm pretty sure that Libya doesn't account for .50 worth of gas (17th largest producer).

Getting screwed again by the gas companies. - dunc

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I have to agree here that its not in this case the 'company's that screw, besides as we all know, the stock of exxon and chevron is mostly held by retirement funds.

The FUTURES of oil have gone to $200/barrel for June I heard the other day. So that puts a bitch slap on everyone's mind. But then 'traders' do crazy shit based on RUMOR(news...).

At the PUMP where dunc is concerned, sure they'll jack up the price all they want, but there are so many dealers that if your more than a few cents off you don't get a customer, ... so all the dealers try to raise the price, ... but everybody needs to cash-flow. Also nobody knows the price of a delivery next week, so they try to price in this week, for the price next week for a tanker.
Most people I have worked with a 'oil companies' tend to be fairly good people.

Like food sky-rocketing today in the 3rd world, most people blame the speculators on driving up the price of commodities.

It's important for you USA parasites to remember that USA folks only pay 3% of their income on food ( eating out is entertainment ). But most of the world spends 80% of their income on food. So when food prices double as they have over the past year, many people now have less to eat. Most folks are blaming the 'food inflation' on the USA making the dollar worthless, which of course is essentially true as all commodity trading is priced in dollars ( reserve currency and trading conduit ) which are worth much less this year than last year.

Thus the USA will continue to cause more riots in the poorest places on the planet.

USA parasites will continue to pay little to nothing for food.

The solution for the world today is to get off the DOLLAR ASAP, to avoid holding worthless dollars tomorrow.

RDC said...

The intentionally mis-quoting of someone is a clear line of lack of both ethics and intellectual honesty.

I never said nor implied that oil companies do not make profits. What I said is:

1. Oil companies do not control short term price. That is controlled by the commodity markets. They can impact it long term by stopping drilling or shutting down production.

2. The profit margin that oil companies make is pretty low compared to their gross sales. It is much lower than many other businesses. It is also pretty low when measured on a return on capital basis

3. A lot of capital is at risk. The oil industry is in the same category as the pharmaceutical industry in terms of how much money must be invested before product can come to market. Their are discovery costs. They can and often do incur substantial costs on the discovery side that yield no return if a well comes up dry, or new reserves are not found.