Angry with gas prices? Blame Wall Street

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If you’re looking for someone to blame for high gasoline prices, we’re here to help. Hint: It’s not President Biden.

Here’s the deal: Gasoline prices have jumped to seven-year highs and are likely to continue to climb. But, as my colleague Matt Egan writes, America’s oil companies are in no rush to release the taps anytime soon. Why? Shareholders coaxed the oil companies into finally living within their means.

“Stop spending like drunken sailors. That’s the message from shareholders,” said Pavel Molchanov, analyst at Raymond James.

A LITTLE CONTEXT

Drill baby drill: American oil companies increased their production at the slightest hint of rising prices. This kept the prices at the pump relatively low. And that made the United States the king of the oil world, overtaking both Saudi Arabia and Russia in terms of production. But the strategy has been terrible for the oil industry’s bottom line. The oil and gas sector was by far the biggest loser in the stock market in the 2010s.

These days the industry is being suppressed by two great forces: the shareholders, who have pressured companies to cut costs, and, together, like, you know … a historic mass holding account of the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels.

Even though U.S. oil prices have risen over 65% this year, U.S. oil production is about 14% lower than it was at the end of 2019.

So basically: blame Wall Street. Oil and gas companies don’t produce more because they focus on getting money back to shareholders.

The situation put Biden in a sticky situation, however. In theory, he could pressure oil executives to increase production in order to lower costs for American drivers. And in that case, the oil companies can ask Biden to relax environmental regulations. But that’s not much of an option for Biden, who has pitched the most aggressive climate program in US history and just traveled to Glasgow earlier this month to urge the rest of the world to reduce fossil fuels.

NUMBER OF THE DAY: 5 BILLION DOLLARS

Hey everyone has to pay taxes, even Elon Musk (although proportionately he pays a lot less than you and I… don’t even get me started). To cover a looming tax bill that is expected to be north of $ 11 billion, Musk sold about $ 5 billion of Tesla shares this week, the first time he has done so since 2016. There will be more sales like this one to come, as he indicated. he will sell 10% of his stake in Tesla to exercise options that expire next year.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Portugal just made it illegal for bosses to call, text or email employees outside of their regular working hours. Illegal! (Every reporter I know has read this headline and burst out laughing, the kind of nervous laugh we’ve learned to use not to cry.)

“The employer must respect the privacy of the worker”, including rest periods and family time, says the new law. (Workers’ rights LOL, get out of here.)

Any infringement, he continues, constitutes a “serious” infringement and could result in a fine. (OK, socialist snowflakes, get ready to see your workers arrive well rested and devoid of a nagging sense of doom that pushes them into an intangible ‘productivity’ vortex and watch your economy crumble!)

A similar rule gave French workers the right to ignore work emails outside of office hours in 2017. (My god!)

The measure also states that employers are responsible for providing workers with the appropriate tools to perform their work remotely. (Can they … can they mandate it?)

They should reimburse workers for any additional expenses, including any increases in bills such as electricity and gas, that they may incur while working from home. (* sobbing softly *)

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