RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Hard to keep the faithRailing against injustice is of course on of the cornerstones of a democracy.
The problem is that the amount of people complaining about high energy bills probably drowns out the amount of us complaining about windfall taxes as I imagine the amount of people that are actually invested in energy, or the stock market in general, probably dwrafs the amount of us that are.
They do not feel that the energy companies are being treated unfairly by governments but rather that energy companies are treating them unfairly and governmants too if they don't do something about it.
Is it self-defeating? It does not appear to be the case based on VET's response of increased EU cap-ex unless you think they would have increased cap-ex more if the WFT did not happen.
Unfortunately energy companies have celebrated their potential winnings (too early as it turns out) right in front of the face of the potential losers without realizing that they had the power to do something about it. Trumpeting buy backs and dividend payments and to a lesser extent paying down debt at substantially elevated levels looks like a celebration dance in the end zone of the the very people that not only have to pay for the resources but in fact acutally own them (as citizens we all own all of the natural resources of our respective countries)
Perhaps VET has learned this lesson (possibly too late) and has pivoted to cry poorish as they surrreptitiously attempt to gather their winnings, (how much? we won't really know unitl the ER will we?), while simultaneously fiegning weakness (as much as you can in a publicly traded corporation) and fly beneath the radar.
When will we find out? Earnings. The actual figures won't lie there is only so much you can hide even with creative accounting.
I myself am looking forward to the end of specualtion and the showing of actual numbers.
A closed Corrib transaction would be nice too!
GLTA
Oldnagger wrote: It does not perturb me at all that people complain against the injust measures that the EU have imposed. Perhaps if more people stated clearly their objections , then governments would be less likely to think that they could get away with these arbitrary, capricious and self defeating measures !!