OMG! Ben Stein on CNN saying oil companies are ok and are victims.

[maveric]

"Oil companies should never be punished. They are just victims of the markets." WTF does that mean?
"Oil companies should be praised for bringing you the gas you need to get to work every day."
Is this guy for real?

[NanceGreggs]

1. Who is the Biggest Asshole in the US today?

Class? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[Cooley Hurd]

2. "Win Ben Stein's Money?"

How about we just kick his ass and take it?:grr:

[dchill]

34. Maybe we can't "Win Ben Stein's Money"...

because it's all tied up in oil company stocks...

[acmavm]

Why would anyone in their right mind listen to a damn thing Ben Stein

says?

Republicans don't count. 'Right minds' is a term that doesn't apply there.

[Salviati]

3. O.K. ben... if we praise them, does that mean

that we can stop paying them through the nose, I would think that that would be "thanks" enough...
:eyes:

[Moochy]

4. Quick get that Authority figure from ferris bueller

'that oughta convince em. Ben Stein is a fucking freeptard troll. There I said it!

[jsamuel]

5. "Oil companies, let me have the pleasure of bending over for you."

[Moochy]

6. Ben Dover

Ben Dover Ben Stein!

[proud patriot]

7. his voice is like finger nails on the chalk board to me

I have to turn the channel whenever he makes sound.

[tabasco]

8. Voice of the robber barons.

Too bad he wasn't around to cheerlead Standard Oil.

Does Stein demand we praise persecuted corporations like Enron too?

Stein worships money. He has no loyalty to this Nation.

He is loyal to his master mammon.

[ladjf]

9. Ben Stein is clearly one of the worst and should be ignored

always.

[JohnnyRingo]

10. Let's recind Buxh's tax cuts and donate it to the oil companies

I'm sure he wants to do what he can to help.

[LeftyFingerPop]

11. Well, you won't like this, but....

The oil companies have not always made money.

They are right now though, and I say more power to them.

Put the blame where it lies.

I've been hearing this crap since the 70's about oil profits. Have we done anything about it in 30 years? No, still the same old reliance on foreign oil.

Will it change? Not unless WE change and drive smaller cars, conserve energy in our homes, and find alternative fuel sources. Until then, more of the same.

Let them make their money, because it's OUR fault.

Quit your whining, or buy some oil stocks.

[bpilgrim]

12. they also got subsidized (corp-swellfare) through-out their 'lifetimes'

lean-and-mean

not to mention the blood on these peoples hands...


peace

[Binka]

13. Boy Aren't You Sweet

Welcome to DU I am sure you will enjoy a long and happy stay here. :eyes:

[LeftyFingerPop]

14. Sorry if you don't like the truth, but.....

If you can't see the real problem and choose to do nothing but complain, I have no sympathy.

And as for Stein, I can't stand him, but he is right. The price of oil is driven by supply and demand....nothing more, like anything else.

Sorry, but I can't agree with this crap.

[Greyhound]

18. Could you be any more uninformed? Supply and demand are the

myth that allows people like you to continue to delude yourselves. :eyes:

[LeftyFingerPop]

26. OIL TRADES ON AN OPEN MARKET!!!

For God's sake....your telling me that oil prices are not based on supply and demand????? IT TRADES EVERYDAY!!!!!! It's a commodity like computers, natural gas, milk, etc.

[Greyhound]

28. Oil is not traded every day, oil futures are traded. More people

believe the price will go up, so they buy from the people that believe the price will go down. When the price up people outnumber the price down people, the price goes up, when the price down people are in the majority the price goes down. Neither case has anything to do with the supply nor demand for oil. Add to this that the misnamed market is completely controlled by those that profit from it and you begin to see why we're in this mess.

[LeftyFingerPop]

29. Not entirely correct

1) There is both a futures market and a spot price market for oil.

2) You are correct in saying that people trade on beliefs of whether the prices will go up or down. However, you need to take it a step further. These beliefs on the direction of prices are based upon whether these traders feel either supply or demand will be limited or enhanced.

[Greyhound]

35. You have ignored the most important parts.

the market is controlled, as in not free. The industry, for the most part, exists in a state of lawlessness, supported and protected from the market forces you espouse by corrupt governments.
For example, where I live the price of our most common oil product, gasoline, has risen almost 30 cents p/gal for absolutely no reason except the white house has taken some of the pressure off when * numbers began to go up. Now that he's sinking again look for another temporary reduction. This in conjunction with the AAA report that shows consumption in this area has actually declined. IOW the supply is up and the demand is down, but the price goes up anyway. The market is not free, because there is no competition.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Are you sure you didn't mean to say

GET OVER IT! instead? Let me guess, you own oil stock?

[LeftyFingerPop]

27. Yes I do.

If my heating bill goes up, I am buying oil stocks. I do not whine about some insignificant man (Ben Stein) without taking full advantage of the markets in anyway I can. It's only common sense.

Think about it....what did the original poster accomplish by whing about Stein? Not a damn thing.

That being said....

I drive a small car and dont take unnecessary trips.

I keep my thermostat low.

I run errands on my nickel for neighbors that cant afford the gas.

Yeah, I own oil stocks.

[Greyhound]

17. Thank you for the sage wisdom. And why do you suppose that

30 years later we still are hostage to the energy corporations? Could it have anything to do with the re:puke:s being in charge and killing each and every attempt we have made to reduce or eliminate our dependence? Do you imagine that, had raygun not killed the solar energy research grants and tax credits, or the programs at the Universities to develop alternative forms of energy, or the subsidies for wind, geothermal, hydrogen, etc., etc.?

[hfojvt]

30. I find that hard to believe

Oil companies have not always made money? :wtf:

Standard Oil was not one of the bigges monopolies of the early 1900s. The Koch brothers are not some of the richest people in this country because of the money their dad made in the oil business in the 1930s? (Okay, they probably really took off in the 1970s).

Buying oil stocks is better than whining? (and not necessarily a safe investment, ala Enron). Buying oil stocks is going to help find alternate fuel sources?

I am sorry that I have not been able to complete my work on solar powered cars in my basement. I have been a little bit busy biking to work and trying to elect Democrats.

[LeftyFingerPop]

31. If you want to complain about oil company profits......

then you should also be complaining about the profits of Microsoft.

Oil companies would not be as profitable as they are now if it were not for our greed and lack of ingenuity.

We made our bed.

And yes, not all oil companies have always been profitable.

[hfojvt]

32. who says I haven't complained about the profits of microsoft?

But microsoft seems to be less of a radical monopoly - American society has not been completely transformed and made dependent upon what microsoft sells. At least not yet.

Ingenuity depends on funding, and our bed was also made by rich people who bought our government and created public policy which would make them richer and more powerful, to the detriment of our society. The private automobile has been subsidized quite heavily, and so, therefore, have the oil companies.

Complaining about that is certainly better than helping to fund it.

[dchill]

36. "...buy some oil stocks"

yeah, Right. Huh, huh. How about a few shares of Harken? The oil companies ("victims") are running the entire government. It's not our fault. We're Democrats.

[Nutmegger]

40. It doesn't help...

when oil companies refuse to build new refineries and / or repair old ones thus causing the illusion of short supply when in reality the oil is just waiting to be refined. Just a coincidence or a dirty, cheap tactic?

[Richard Steele]

41. "Quit your whining, or buy some oil stocks."

You forgot to add, "Get a job, Hippy"
to the end of your little pro-fascist propaganda-speil.

Where do you get your ideas?
Did you just cut-n-paste that from the Limbaugh Letter?

[progressivebydesign]

15. There is something wrong with that man.

WHY is he given any air time?

[dchill]

38. "...something wrong with that man."

There are so very few that you could NOT say that about among those who do get airtime.

But this supposedly brilliant man seems like nothing more than a mindless shill to me. There IS something wrong with him - he's obsessed with and in love with anything or anyone who is associated with money. It's his idea of success, of achievement, of quality, and of intelligence.

[Loge23]

19. Ben Stein rots in hell...

...with the rest of the bastards. I'm so sick of these freaks.
When will this nightmare end?

[Hyernel]

20. Ben Stein is a whore. A paid spokesman with no honor.

I'm glad Ferris Beuller played hooky on that rat bastard.

[bkcc]

21. Stein is a half-wit.

He's a total shill for all things conservative, but he goes around posing as a member of the intelligensia.

Franken is friends with him and has had him on his show a few times. Each time, it becomes more and more apparent that Stein has very little in the way of facts to back up his ideas, which are little more than Republican Party talking points.

Just what you'd expect from someone who openly admits that their personal hero is Richard Nixon.

[spanone]

22. Stein is an egomaniac and a disgusting republican.

I will devote no more time to him than that.

[Bluestar]

23. Couldn't Stand His TV show

And now I can't stand him! He has such irritating qualities and (big surprise) now we find out he's a big right-winger! He's just an old comic and a hack--why does he have any authority to speak about such things on CNN?

[Coastie for Truth]

24. "Victims" - Victims of Peak Oil and their own success.

(I am in the non-petroleum side of the energy industry)
<>
(Photovoltaic cell)

[AngryOldDem]

25. Why do they give Ben Stein any airtime?

It ALWAYS boggles my mind when he shows up on these news programs acting like he knows what the fuck he's talking about.

Just keep telling yourself: FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY.

Otherwise, you'll have a stroke or go insane. Or both.

[Skittles]

33. it means ben stein is a republican whore

he is just sickening

[FreedomAngel82]

37. Oh yes

all that damn money is such a hardship. :sarcasm: Ugh.

[Jara sang]

39. Ben Stein couldn't make it as a legitimate economist

so he made a living of making a mockery of himself.

[seabeyond]

42. my brother making 550 a day as i take care of his daughter again.

oil companies arent hurting

[Deja Q]

43. Hmmm, Bennypoo treating FELLOW AMERICANS like ungrateful slaves

But Bennypoo will be in the same boat as us eventually. Have solace in that.

The jerkwad can't remain smug forever.

And, yes, he is for real.

He's out of touch with reality too.

And I will not praise an oil company as if is a second-rate god. There is only ONE God.

[skids]

44. Good. He finally screwed up.

He'll lose some of his sociopathic fan base over that comment.

[banana republican]

45. No Brainer (except for those withno brain)

stein is a repuke........
.........................
.........................
n/t

[napi21]

46. Yea, I saw that! The market makers establish the price, so

the oil companies are not in control.

I also listened to the congressional hearings on oil pricing. Testifying were CEO's of 4 or 5 oil companies. They WERE asked "If the price per barrel is the highest it's ever been, and you are pumping and refining as much as you can, WHY are you all making record profits?"

None of them ever answered that question!