Chron confuses market pricing and collusion : Lone Star Times

Chron confuses market pricing and collusion

by Owen Courrèges · 02/06/2006 3:40 pm

The Houston Chronicle takes some swipes at the oil industry in one of their staff editorials today. Naturally, much of it is thoughtless and stupid:

While oil companies can rightly claim they are businesses entitled to an honest profit and not charities, the record profits should cause them to temporarily retire some the industry’s usual talking points:

•"OPEC made me do it." Like the oil cartel, oil companies also benefit from charging whatever the market will bear. As long as demand is rising, they have no inducement to cut prices.

Is the Chronicle really so simple-minded that it can’t tell the difference between charging the market price for a commodity, and setting up a cartel whereby suppliers collude to fix prices?

I’ll give the Chron a hint: If ExxonMobil did what OPEC does, they’d be hauled into court. We have laws against price-fixing and collusion, and nobody has shown that oil companies in the US have been violating them. Hence this is a ridiculous example of moral equivalency, which only serves to boost the stature of OPEC.

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Comments

4 Responses to “Chron confuses market pricing and collusion”

cameraguy on February 6th, 2006 at 4:52 pm

Come on, the journalism students I was with in school spent most of their time smoking dope, listening to records, and bashing Republicans. Oh yeah, and attending Earth Day meetings…

Do you actually expect reasoned, intelligent thought from these people?

I recall a classic debate in class. The question was “Why doesn’t Michael Dukakis respond to the vicious attacks from George Bush and the other (other!) right-wing zealots?”

The conclusion? “Democrats don’t like to lower themselves to the level of Republicans. Dukakis is above that….”

So, anyone reading the Crapical to get intelligent information is wasting their time….
The Dude on February 6th, 2006 at 4:58 pm

I guess I’d have to give the Chronicle a little leeway on this issue. Many normally intelligent people (even on this site) fall into the trap of thinking that because oil companies are making a lot of money, that they are somehow doing it immorally and/or illegally. The Crumbicle is just getting cheap applause where they know they can. It’s easier for them than actually thinking.
Big45Iron on February 6th, 2006 at 5:35 pm

I wonder what the profit margin is on their rag? They fail to mention that the govt takes more profit from fuel than anybody - PURE profit since the govt didn’t do a thing to earn it.
neocon on February 6th, 2006 at 7:07 pm

Dude & Big! SPOT ON!