Branson on the airlines and oil prices

Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group and ridiculously wealthy adventurer, had some interesting things to say recently to CNN. Go to their homepage and check the videos section. What I found most interesting is that the guy is thinking about building an oil refinery. Does he really want into the oil business? Well, he says absolutely not. The problem is that the big oil companies have been making such extortionist profits by refusing to build new refineries for decades that Branson, ever the businessman, thinks it might be necessary to break big oil's hold on the market and that in the long run doing so will benefit his airline business.

So we have more confirmation of the obvious. The oil industry has been quite deliberately jacking up our prices by refusing to increase refinery capacity for decades now. In doing so, as noted previously, they have achieved the biggest profits in the history of corporations, and yet still they have not invested those huge profits in expanding the outdated and overworked refinery system. I would think our government could find some illegal business practices there if they bothered to look, but of course our politicians make far too much money from oil lobbyists.

And in the category of "Why the Fuck is this News?", USAToday has a story today about how college students are buying flip-flops with their school logos on them. What the hell? Who cares!? Who's the moron that approved this story? Does the woman who wrote it call herself a journalist? Next week, "Some Americans Find Lint in their Belly Buttons!", a special report in USAToday!