If there are gougers out there in terms of gasoline, it would be the government, taking in taxes that are about four times the amount of profit the oil companies make per gallon. (I'm sure this will open the same can of worms it always does.)

Look, I'm a free market kind of guy myself, sca. But it's not as simple as all that. To my way of thinking, free market means free market. What it doesn't mean is that the wealthy should influence the decision making of the powerful. It doesn't mean that those who need it least get the most welfare from the government. Secret energy meetings? Huge windfalls from the government at the same time they announce record profits? Are you sh*tting me? The government is in bed with Big Oil but you went to defend the Corpos and deride the Politicos.

They both suck monkey balls, my friend.

Exxon made more than $10 Billion in a single quarter when many people are truly suffering financially in order to keep their vehicles running. Are they gougers? Yes. Who sets the price for a gallon of gas? The only answer you can ever get to that question is vague techno babble about this and that but the truth is, if you are Exxon and you control the source, the processing and the sale you can set whatever price you want and thats what they are doing. They are trying to make the most profit they can and using every excuse to do it. I just hope all of this greed is enough to finally convince people that it's time to bag oil and move on to better energy sources.

I heard pretty basic but informative report on the news about oil company profits. Interesting.

Heh - my work subsidy pays up to $60 a month - so I've been commuting nearly for free (except those damn zone charges)

Profit is not the problem.

I'm all for alternative energy sources.

When the alternative energy sources become more profitable, they will begin to move to the forefront. I previously mentioned I can't buy E85 for my truck (comparable in price to gasoline, or so I've heard) because it isn't sold within 100 miles of me. Why? Infrastructure is too expensive to make it profitable in Phoenix at a price I'm willing to pay.

And price gouging? I will again defer to my favorite economist.

Price gouging and gasoline

Probably only requires the 87. RTFM

It's called capitalism. Perfectly legal. And will continue as long as we, as a society, continue to rely on fossil fuels.

Did some quick research

Exxon: $9.92 billion profit on $100.7 billion revenue: 9.85% profit margin
Microsoft: $3.65 billion profit on $11.84 billion revenue: 30.83% profit margin (latest quarter that info was available - though I don't recall which one)
Disney: $1.434 billion profit on $8.027 billion revenue: 17.86% profit margin (latest quarter that info was available - though I don't recall which one)
General Electric: $11.123 billion profit on $37.821 billion revenue: 29.41% profit margin (Quarter ending March 31)
Apple Computer: $472 million profit on $4,370 million revenue: 10.8% profit margin (Quarter ending July 1) (I actually expected this one to be higher)

Of the five examples given, Exxon has the LOWEST profit margin.

GREAT post, Kevy. So apparently it is volume.

One thing I thought to be funny was the most recent Intel quarterly profit report (Released July 19, second quarter data).

Intel reported sales of $8.0 billion and a profit of $885 million, just over an 11% profit margin. This data was considered disappointing as compared to the second quarter of last year, with sales of $9.2 billion, and a profit of $2.0 billion, a 21.7% profit margin. While the disappointment is partly sales, the biggest disappointment is an almost 60% reduction in profit.