Facebook's IPO Debacle, Day 3: Un-Friended and Dis-Liked on Wall…
Former Olympic Rower Turned to Minimalism to Pay Down $82,000 in Debt
If Barack Obama is receiving advice from "my pal Warren" then he must not be listening. There is no way that Warren Buffett, the national debt hawk, would support Obama's stupid idea of giving another $1,000 back to every family in America. It is reported that he would pay for this by creating a windfall profit tax on oil companies.This give-away program is an attempt to buy votes plain and simple. It would add to the national debt, discourage oil companies from investing and worse it would handicap American companies more than others and mortgage more of our children's futures.
The last thing the people of the United States need is more deficit spending. If we did tax oil companies, which I am against, I would only support using the funds for expanding education, research and development in science and engineering with the goal of maintaining our waning leadership in technology.
We need to do things that increase our productivity. Increasing our dependency on government handouts is a colossal mistake.
The so-called windfall profits of the oil companies is another thing I question. The profits are large because the demand is high and the gross receipts are high. It is simply a big number, not necessarily a high margin. When the profits were absent during periods of lower oil prices, nobody said anything.
Here are some net profit margin facts.
Three oil companies:
- Exxon Mobile (NYSE: XOM) 11.32%
- ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) 6.93%
- Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) 9.16%
- Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) 14.56%
- Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) 17.31%
- General Electric (NYSE: GE) 13.09%
Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of COP, GE, & JNJ.
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
9-17-2008 @ 12:34PM
howard said...
What should be done is keep the taxes the same and lower goverment spending by 105 and use that to pay off the deficit and to pump up social security and inferstructure. That is the way to go. All of us know you dont take a pay cut and continue spending like no tomorrow!! Does this man take us for fools!!!!
10-11-2008 @ 12:21AM
jabramson said...
Isn't this very similar to the same thing Palin did in Alaska. She gave $1200 from a windfall tax on the oil companies this year. Also, it was near 70% of the people of Alaska got it which is more than one per household.
This is also a better idea than the tax stimulus package approved by the Bush administration which was paid for by borrowing the money from China. At least this plan if approved by Congress would be paid for by something that makes more sense. And it is called a fuel rebate, not a tax rebate.