By "gouging" do you simply mean charging too much? If you don't want to pay for what someone else is selling, don't buy it or buy less. Its not your gasoline. If you own a house and only paid 1/2 what it worth now, should you be forced to sell it at a limited markup to your purchase price? How about stock, should their be some limit to how big of profit you can make?
As for "proof", in that article all that is presented is the claim that the margin of refiners has increased. Margins change, and its not surprising they are higher when the market price for what they sell is higher. That certainly isn't gouging in terms of the legal definition, and it isn't evidence, let alone proof of any effective operation of a cartel. Margins change all the time, markets aren't static.
"In a competitive market, when raw material gets more expensive, margins typically shrink, economists say. Not so in the oil business these days. Refiners have somehow managed to fatten their margins through years of rising oil costs."
That is a gross simplification. If nothing else changes other than the raw material cost the margin might shrink, depending on the price elasticity or the end product. OTOH if demand increases (and both American and world demand for gasoline has increased), while supply does not have any large new increase (refinery capacity has not kept up with the demand for refined products), than margins normally increase.
Also even as your own link points out - "Refining costs have escalated from environmental mandates, such as special gas blends mandated in particular places. Wild price fluctuations have added risk — and thus financing cost — to business projects. Last summer's hurricanes also temporarily took out some operations."
That article isn't proof of anything. Its opinion combined with incomplete analysis. |
