Economy Archives - Page 68 of 68 - Common Sense Evaluation

Democrats Put Big Oil on Display Once Again

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Apr 022008

The Impact of Taxes on Gas Prices 2008 – State & Federal Gasoline Taxes

With gas prices in the headlines and the Presidential election around the corner, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and various other Democrats have decided once again that “Big Oil” is America’s single greatest enemy. Well if they were really serious about lowering the cost of gas they would start by cutting the amount of tax added to price of one gallon.

Taxes add a significant amount to the price of gas and vary widely by state. For the first quarter of 2008, the average state gasoline tax is 28.6 cents per gallon, plus 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 47 cents per gallon. For diesel, the average state tax is 29.2 cents per gallon plus an additional 24.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 53.6 cents per gallon.

It scares the pants off me that so many people have such a fragile grasp of even the most basics of economics that they buy into the hogwash politicians peddle to gain votes.

Democrats hit Big Oil

Capitol Hill Democrats yesterday chastised executives of five big oil companies for not doing enough to curb skyrocketing gasoline prices and investing too little in renewable energy, as pump prices hit a record high.

“Today, on April Fool’s Day, consumers all over America are hoping that the top executives from the five largest oil companies will tell us that these soaring gas prices are just part of an elaborate hoax,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a joke.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, Missouri Democrat, said Americans’ “anger level is rising” for having to pay more than $3 per gallon for gasoline.

“Your approval ratings are lower than ours [in Congress] — you are down low,” Mr. Cleaver told the oil executives.

Profits of the five largest oil companies — Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and Conoco Phillips — topped a record $123 billion last year, up from $30 billion in 2002.

The oilmen told the committee that their companies’ profits are in line with other industries, and warned that higher taxes or excessive government regulation would do nothing to lower gas prices.

“Imposing punitive taxes on American energy companies, which already pay record taxes, will discourage the sustained investments needed to continue safeguarding U.S. energy security,” said J. Stephen Simon, senior vice president for Exxon Mobil.

Motorists voiced disgust with prices at the pump, which hit a record of $3.29 a gallon and could eclipse $4 a gallon when the peak summer driving season starts.

“The gas dealers are making their money,” Maryland motorist Walter Haselrig grumbled as he pumped gas at a Citgo station on New York Avenue in Northeast. “They’re making profits. High profits. Never before in the history of America has the industry made that kind of money.”

Michael Smith, an Anne Arundel County resident who drives 50 miles a day to and from his job in the District, blamed high gas prices on the war in Iraq.

“They’re going to keep going up because we’re over there fighting a war that’s not ours,” he said. “We had an agreement with them and we broke that agreement, so now we’re paying.”

Rising pump prices have put added pressure on a U.S. economy already beleaguered by an imploding housing market and recession fears, while oil-company profits surge.

The committee heard testimony from officials at Exxon Mobil, BP America, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Chevron oil companies in what is expected to be the first of several congressional hearings this year.

Many committee members urged the companies to invest more in biofuels, wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources in order to wean the country off its dependency on fossil fuels, specifically foreign oil.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Oregon Democrat, encouraged oil companies to replace oil with renewable alternatives as the industries’ main fuel source within the next 10 to 15 years. And Mr. Markey suggested that oil companies should invest 10 percent of their profits in alternative fuels.

But the oil companies said that despite millions of dollars invested for the development of renewable energy, oil will remain the world’s dominant energy source for decades.

“We are in a fossil-fuel environment for some time,” Chevron Vice Chairman Peter J. Robertson said.

Mr. Simon said that even by 2030, oil and gas still will handle about 54 percent of the world’s energy demand.

Several committee members criticized Mr. Simon and Exxon Mobil for investing billions in researching new oil sources but little on “clean” energy fuels that would help reduce greenhouse emissions.

“If you don’t put research dollars into [clean energy sources], is it going to come from the oil fairy?” said Rep. Jay Inslee, Washington Democrat. “We’ve got to put some real money into this.”

But Mr. Simon said oil “is in our equation” and that his company is “focusing on how to make that oil much more efficient.”

Republicans on the committee also acknowledge the public frustration over the rising oil prices, but many tempered their criticism of the oil companies.

“My hope today is that the committee will have a reasoned discussion with you today and that we will benefit from your experience and your expertise,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, told executives. “I also hope that we’re not going to sit here and try to place blame for what may be causing this.”

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, the committee’s ranking Republican, reminded the panel that oil companies “create a lot of good jobs, and their expanded investment in market-driven research and technology only serves to create more jobs.”

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, mocked the hearing by distributing a fake news release yesterday that featured fabricated testimony from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thanking House Democrats for passing a recent measure that reportedly would benefit Venezuela’s state-owned oil giant, Citgo.

America: The Great Depression Of 2008

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Apr 012008

The last line in this story exposes it for the farce that it is… “…and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per cent”. Unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s was around 24.9%. I’d say that’s quite a difference.

The depression that America is experiencing has more to do with the fact that there isn’t a candidate worth electing as our next President.

USA 2008: The Great Depression

Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive – a sure sign the world’s richest country faces economic crisis.

We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families.

Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.

The increase – from 26.5 million in 2007 – is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards. But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an economy that is suddenly beset by troubles. Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add to the squeeze.

Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country’s economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story.

Michigan has been in its own mini-recession for years as its collapsing industrial base, particularly in the car industry, has cast more and more out of work. Now, one in eight residents of the state is on food stamps, double the level in 2000. “We have seen a dramatic increase in recent years, but we have also seen it climbing more in recent months,” Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for Michigan’s programme, said. “It’s been increasing steadily. Without the programme, some families and kids would be going without.”

But the trend is not restricted to the rust-belt regions. Forty states are reporting increases in applications for the stamps, actually electronic cards that are filled automatically once a month by the government and are swiped by shoppers at the till, in the 12 months from December 2006. At least six states, including Florida, Arizona and Maryland, have had a 10 per cent increase in the past year.

In Rhode Island, the segment of the population on food stamps has risen by 18 per cent in two years. The food programme started 40 years ago when hunger was still a daily fact of life for many Americans. The recent switch from paper coupons to the plastic card system has helped remove some of the stigma associated with the food stamp programme. The card can be swiped as easily as a bank debit card. To qualify for the cards, Americans do not have to be exactly on the breadline. The programme is available to people whose earnings are just above the official poverty line. For Hubert Liepnieks, the card is a lifeline he could never afford to lose. Just out of prison, he sleeps in overnight shelters in Manhattan and uses the card at a Morgan Williams supermarket on East 23rd Street. Yesterday, he and his fiancée, Christine Schultz, who is in a wheelchair, shared one banana and a cup of coffee bought with the 82 cents left on it.

“They should be refilling it in the next three or four days,” Liepnieks says. At times, he admits, he and friends bargain with owners of the smaller grocery shops to trade the value of their cards for cash, although it is illegal. “It can be done. I get $7 back on $10.”

Richard Enright, the manager at this Morgan Williams, says the numbers of customers on food stamps has been steady but he expects that to rise soon. “In this location, it’s still mostly old people and people who have retired from city jobs on stamps,” he says. Food stamp money was designed to supplement what people could buy rather than covering all the costs of a family’s groceries. But the problem now, Mr Enright says, is that soaring prices are squeezing the value of the benefits.

“Last St Patrick’s Day, we were selling Irish soda bread for $1.99. This year it was $2.99. Prices are just spiralling up, because of the cost of gas trucking the food into the city and because of commodity prices. People complain, but I tell them it’s not my fault everything is more expensive.”

The US Department of Agriculture says the cost of feeding a low-income family of four has risen 6 per cent in 12 months. “The amount of food stamps per household hasn’t gone up with the food costs,” says Dayna Ballantyne, who runs a food bank in Des Moines, Iowa. “Our clients are finding they aren’t able to purchase food like they used to.”

And the next monthly job numbers, to be released this Friday, are likely to show 50,000 more jobs were lost nationwide in March, and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per cent.

200 Billion Barrels Of Oil That Could Make The U.S. Energy Independent

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Mar 292008

If this is true, try and force me to put corn in my gas tank. Next Energy News is reporting of a massive oil field in the Bakken Formation Reserve of North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. Estimates range from 100 billion to 500 billion barrels of oil. That could produce enough oil to make us energy independent for decades.

Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.

It was not until 2007, when EOG Resources of Texas started a frenzy when they drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to yield 700,000 barrels of oil that real excitement and money started to flow in North Dakota. Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells in what is expected to be one of the greatest booms in Oil discovery since Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938.

The US imported about 14 million barrels of Oil per day in 2007 , which means US consumers sent about $340 Billion Dollars over seas building palaces in Dubai and propping up unfriendly regimes around the World, if 200 billion barrels of oil at $90 a barrel are recovered in the high plains the added wealth to the US economy would be $18 Trillion Dollars which would go a long way in stabilizing the US trade deficit and could cut the cost of oil in half in the long run.

Your Social Security Number Will Determine When Your Economic Stimulus Check Is Sent

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Mar 182008

I know there are some people out there complaining about getting an economic stimulus check. In my opinion, much of that has to do with “Bush Derangement Syndrome”. Any time the government is giving me my money back, I’m happy.

This is the way it generally breaks down depending on the method of payment.

Direct Deposit Payments:

If the last two digits of your Social Security number are:
Your economic stimulus payment deposit should be sent to your bank account by:

00 – 20 May 2
21 – 75 May 9
76 – 99 May 16

Paper Check

If the last two digits of your Social Security number are:
Your check should be in the mail by:

00 – 09 May 16
10 – 18 May 23
19 – 25 May 30
26 – 38 June 6
39 – 51 June 13
52 – 63 June 20
64 – 75 June 27
76 – 87 July 4
88 – 99 July 11

Social Security numbers determine when economic stimulus checks go out

The Internal Revenue Service outlined Monday how your Social Security number will determine when you probably will get your economic stimulus check this spring or summer.

The IRS said it plans to deliver 130 million checks between May 2 and July 11 based on the last two digits of the recipient’s Social Security number.

According to the IRS, direct deposit payments will be made May 2 to recipients whose Social Security numbers end in 00-20.

Direct deposit payments will be made a week later, May 9, to people whose numbers end in 21-75. The final round of direct deposit payments will be made May 16 to people whose numbers end in 76-99.

Those who will receive paper checks are on a longer schedule.

Checks will be mailed May 16 to those whose numbers end in 00-09. A second round of checks will be mailed May 23 to those whose numbers end in 10-18. A May 30 mailing will be made to people whose numbers end in 19-25.

Subsequent mailings will be made June 6 to those whose numbers end in 26-38, June 13 to numbers 39-51, June 20 to numbers 52-63, June 27 to numbers 64-75, July 4 to numbers 76-87, and July 11 to those whose numbers end in 88-99.

The payments of $300 each to certain low-income recipients and $600 or $1,200 to single or married taxpayers, plus additional money for families with qualifying children, will be calculated from tax returns filed by April 15. Filers also can indicate on those returns whether they want money directly deposited in a bank account or mailed to them.

Late filers and anyone who owes back taxes or other debt that normally would interfere with getting a tax refund also may get either a later stimulus payment or a smaller one, the IRS said.

Previously:
Economic Stimulus Package Rebate Calculator

Economic Stimulus Package Rebate Calculator

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Feb 202008

If you’re like I am, when it comes to extra money in your pocket, then you can bet I want to know more. So here are the details along with a handy calculator to see how much you’re getting back.

The Economic Stimulus Package recently passed Congress, and tax rebate checks will be sent out late spring or early summer.

The Basics for Tax Rebate Checks
· Most single taxpayers will get a rebate of $600.
· Most married couples who file jointly will get $1,200.
· Plus, you’ll get an extra $300 for each child under age 17 for whom you claim a child credit on your 2007 return.
· Low income seniors and disabled veterans (and their widows) who don’t owe enough income tax to qualify for the full rebate can qualify for checks of $300, or $600 if they filed joint returns.

These checks will be sent automatically, so no application form is necessary, as 2007 income will be used. The calculator below can be used to find out how much your rebate should be:

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