In today's Daily Sun Pepsi reported an 18% increase in profits--not by selling more product (they actually sold less), but by increasing the price of their product.

Please explain.
Oil, retail, airlines all showing record profits. These are not government entities.
Again......please explain

GOOD POST!
Hey.......At least Mexico paid for that wall. Oh wait.......What?!?!?.... never mind. :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Inflation
 

Gas is still way higher overall compared to where it was in January 2021 and non BJ shoppers pay over 3.30 per gallon at Circle K.

Don't forget we have the Ukraine war which has increased the price of oil and gas worldwide. Recently OPEC cut production in order to raise oil prices which translates to higher gas prices. OPEC says it will continue to cut production through 2024, so don't expect gas prices to drop any time soon. In addition, China is re-opening since the pandemic will create a huge demand for oil, which with lesser amounts available due to OPEC, will cause a jump in prices. Big oil, as others have pointed out, is raking in record profits, handing the bulk of those profits to executives and wealthy shareholders.

"The annual inflation rate in the US slowed to 3% in June of 2023, the lowest since March of 2021 and compared to 4% in May and expectations of 3.1%. The slowdown is partly due to a high base effect from last year when a surge in energy and food prices pushed the headline inflation rate to 1981-highs of 9.1%. Energy cost slumped 16.7% (vs -11.7% in May), with prices falling 36.6% for fuel oil, 26.5% for gasoline, and 18.6% for utility gas service. Electricity prices increased by 5.4%. Also, inflation slowed for food (5.7% vs 6.7% in May) and shelter (7.8% vs 8%). Smaller price increases were also recorded for new vehicles (4.1% vs 4.7%), apparel (3.1% vs 3.5%), and transportation services (8.2% vs 10.2%). The cost of medical services was down 0.8% and prices of used cars and trucks declined 5.2%. The core inflation rate dropped to 4.8%, the lowest since October of 2021. source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics"
Prices for most items are higher than last year !

Russia invaded Ukraine because they no longer feared the US. We are much weaker because of Joe. Russia calculated the US and Europe's dependence on OPEC and Russian oil would allow them to invade, and resistance from the west would be minimal.

Big oil cut way back on spending for drilling new wells because of fear Biden will cut off the land lease again, causing Billions spent to become worthless (again).
So instead they held on to those funds. It gets lumped into profits. People scream "record profits" without understanding the cause and effect.
Same could be said for anyone on here, given the right circumstances. Just stop buying everything. No food, no clothing, no electricity or gas. Suddenly you have record savings, aka profits. Your future in in serious jeopardy, but lets report those big scary half facts.

How do we fight OPEC controlling the prices of oil?
Allow oil companies to drill again. Grant land leases in places where productive reserves are actually located. Add a clause that if the lease gets altered by the government, or there are other limitations imposed that effect obtaining that well's production, oil company gets reimbursed for all costs spent on that site.
Then oil companies will have safety investing, and Biden won't be able to drive his EV agenda by restricting land leases again. US will be on track to energy independence once again, and OPEC can suffer.

A few years ago, we exported oil.... without being political, we all know the reason for high gas prices....

Wrong! Our gas prices were up by over $1 way before the war started, the WH has used this excuse to try to get out of the mess they created. Also untrue about opec. When we were a major oil exporting country, we could care less what opec did. The United States can be self sufficient in energy if we didn’t have all the BS regulations of this WH. So now we are dependent on our enemies for sending us oil, no wonder they are trying to screw us anyway they can.

Compound Inflation
 

Don’t ignore the fact that the 3% is in addition to the 9.1% of Last Year!

Keep in mind that inflation rate is a measurement from one point to another for a basket of goods and services. If the rate of increase is 3% from 22 to 23 and 9% from 21 to 22 then the rate of increase from 21 to 23 is 12%. The fed targets a 2% increase for a healthy economy, but negative inflation I believe stagflation is what would get us back to prepandemic prices. However we don’t want that, because the economy would be in shambles.

What election and what did it influence?

Bless your heart, you are missing some important facts. Where do I start?

Yes gas prices were higher before Russia invaded Ukraine, but that was because of a rise in gas demand, due to a return to the road after Covid lockdowns, according to Forbes. You do understand supply/demand I hope? In late 2021 the administration pushed to release some oil reserves to push down prices. If you check Forbes again, they have a great article on energy independence. (Forbes, being a conservative news source.) If you consider energy independence to mean we produce more energy than we consume, there was a shale boom that unleashed huge amounts of domestic oil and gas, and by the time the previous administration had taken office, our net energy imports had fallen, and by 2019 NET energy imports turned negative, due to the SHALE boom. Now with a new administration, numbers for 2022 show that US energy exports have been the highest on record, and total US energy production was the highest on record.

We have always imported oil. The reason for this is that there are different types of oil that are used for different purposes. For example, crude oil is a better fit for our energy systems rather than the shale oil which is lighter. So we export the shale oil while refiners import the heavy crude they prefer. The idea of energy independence is to export more than we import.

It goes without saying that renewable energy has great potential to reduce prices and dependence on fossil fuels in the future. We are in a transition phase.

I have a hybrid car, that gets 50 MPG around town. You wouldn't have seen that 10 years ago.

Sure
 

Yes, the government overspent and consumer confidence gobbled up the poor supply chain issues. They made sure oil supplies were cut and drove up transportation costs that further exasperated everything. Obviously before the pandemic, our economy was doing great with barely 2% inflation. The mismanagement of the government we have will be straightened eventually I hope.

Russia invaded Ukraine because the two have at odds since Ukraine declared itself independent in 1991. Since then, Putin has denied that Ukraine is even a country. He considers it Russian, part of the Slavic brotherhood, and is threatened that Ukraine has aligned itself with the West in recent years, particularly with NATO. And Ukraine has supplied much of Russia's coal, steel, etc, over time. Russian experts say Putin wants to see himself as a great Russian leader restoring Russian lands. He took a break when the previous administration was in power, due to our president's favoritism towards Russian, and also the Covid pandemic played a part, since Putin was much more isolated. But again according to experts, He thought western leadership wasn't capable, and that there would be no opposition to his aggression. Of course, that assumption turned out to be wrong.

A look at actual FACTS regarding approvals for permits to drill on federal land, show that the present administration has approved more permits at this point in time, than the previous administration. In fact environmental advocates want that statistic to go down, but the government is holding fast.

There has been a decrease in leases to the oil companies, which the government counters by saying that companies could increase production using the many thousands of permits already available to them which have remained unused. The federal government will continue leasing land to oil drillers as long as there is demand, but look around. With the proliferation of electric and hybrid vehicles, solar power, etc., surely the demand is shifting away from fossil fuels.

And the oil companies continue to make record profits while they whine about the drop in leases. Cry me a river.

There is a change in the matrix.....inflation will level out but at a higher price level just as experienced thru time, oil is political
oil producers will turn off and turn on the oils spickets as they see fit until government steps in to halt the greed down to an acceptable level, no supply and demand there, wages have spiked causing prices to rise, 20$ an hour to stock shelves or fix coffee has an upward price move on products sold. Once business's have seen how to control their supply chains (when they make stuff available) they are learning how to profit more. No supply and demand there, but business control, scary. I am afraid people need to learn how to adjust there consumption to survive. The new matrix is here................

Forbes is a left leaning magazine, no conservative part about it. I cancelled my subscription a while back because they are woke.

12 years ago, I had a diesel car that got 52 mpg and I paid less than you did. IMO, hybrids are rather useless because you only get 20-30 miles on electric power so why have a hybrid?

During the pandemic, we had a glut of gas, everybody was home bound. Nobody traveled for vacations, work, no fishing, waterskiing, no airline flights. So if we had a high demand for gas during the pandemic, where did it come from? During the pandemic, cruise ships were shutdown, airlines were hurting, and it took over 2 years for these institutions to get back on their feet. I’ll bet 1/2 the employees of this country are still telecommuting so the demand is still weaker than before the pandemic.

Excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to write it

Forbes used to a wonderful common sense magazine that taught lots about running businesses. Unfortunately the family sold the business and it went straight downhill. Different editorial philosophy, less issues for more money.

Stopped getting it a few years ago and if anything it is getting worse.

I don't think you read my post through. There wasn't a demand for gasoline during the pandemic. The demand came AFTER the pandemic, when people hit the road after being cooped up. Goods were in production and needed to be transported. Covid stifled demand for gas, causing production to collapse, and companies had to ramp up again. Yet OPEC said it would no boost oil production, hence higher prices.

Actually Forbes has a conservative rating on economic issues, but is rated "lean left" on social issues such as abortion and LBGTQ. And we were talking about economic issues here. But you used my favorite word: "woke" which means awakened to the needs of others, well informed, thoughtful, compassionate, kind, wanting to make the world a better place for ALL people. Proud to be woke.

Lets say you are a cattle farmer and want to lease farm land for your herd of cattle. The government is offering you lots of land. Unfortunately it's in the middle of a desert. Unsuitable for a farm.

This is what the leases that the government is offering oil companies are like. Land that is useless for drilling productive wells.
They say "Why don't they use the ones they already have?"
They say "We are not stopping new leases."
Technically both are true statements, but they severely lacking accurate context. The news media parrots their talking points without the slightest bit of understanding. Something like describing Everglades swamp land with beautiful "waterfront views" when someone who wants to buy a beach condo.

What is your source of information?

In 2022, total petroleum exports were about 9.58 million barrels per day (b/d) and total petroleum imports were about 8.32 million b/d, making the United States an annual net total petroleum exporter for the third year in a row. Total petroleum net exports were about 1.26 million b/d in 2022.

Such a sad thing to see here. I posted what I thought was some good news about the economy; the inflation rate has dropped from a very significant high, and has been dropping steadily for a year. And y'all turned it into some ugly political crap. Not surprised, but sad to see.