Percent drop in world oil supply since gulf crisis: 2.6% Percent increase in the price of oil since crisis: 100% [The Nation 10/22/90 p.442, Alexander Cockburn] # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Please boys, keep those oil profits under wraps =============================================== Arms manufacturers are not the only ones benefitting from the Mideast crisis. President Bush's friends in the oil industry are also enjoying increases of 20 to 40 percent in their third-quarter profits this year. Although their friends in the White House and congress have no objection to the oil companies making a killing at the public's expense, they do fear a popular backlash if the word gets out. As Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) told Energy Secretary James Watkins in early September, "There will be universal outrage" if reports of soaring profits appear. What to do? Paine Webber's Bryan Jacoboski knows. Oil executives, he says, realize that "the best way to avoid any windfall profit tax is not to report any windfall profits." And the best way to avoid reporting windfall profits is to hide them by setting aside or holding money in reserve for alleged future expenses of one kind of another. There is a "well-established tradition in the oil industry," according to a Salomon Brothers analyst, "That any time your company realizes extraordinary earnings, you try to develop some kind of extraordinary pocket to deeply hide those earnings." Given the near-universal outrage at the way oil companies have been despoiling the environment, the analyst explains, "environmental charges have been a favorite in the last two years." This way you can kill two birds with one stone. [In These Times, Editorial, Sept 26-Oct 2, 1990] ################################################################## # Copyright 1990, Harel Barzilai for Activists Mailing List (AML)# # You may copy freely so long as you do not charge # # others for it, and include this copyright notice # ################################################################## To join AML, just send the message "SUB ACTIV-L " to the address: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET; you should then receive a message confirming that your name has been added to the list. Other addresses to try (only) if the above fails are: "LISTSERV@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU" or "ucscc!umcvmb.missouri.edu!LISTSERV"] [If you have problems/questions, contact the list Administrator: Rich Winkel at MATHRICH@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU or MATHRICH%UMCVMB.BITNET]