OT: Anybody remember Windfall Profits Tax of late '70s or early '80s?

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I was a mere child then, and can't recall exactly when oil profits were taxed retroactively. Anybody remember this? Anybody have insights into what the government may choose to do again (given the current climate for profits in oil and/or precious metals)?

A retroactive tax is kind of hard to plan for.

Just an Indiana housewife,

-- J Wheel (motherof5@wellprepared.noregrets), January 15, 2000

Answers

Didn't LBJ reduce/eliminate oil tax right after JFK got whacked. Score one for Big Oil. I think Carter brought windfall tax back during the run up of oil prices due OPEC embargo in the 70s. At this point, guv is under control by TPTB so don't hold your breathe about any retro or new oil tax.

People on this site are looking in many closets for conspirators. Klinton is a lap dog. Zapruder had it all in color. Can anybody give me a link to the Kennedy closet lookers???

-- phoneman (bcrefrig@excelonline.com), January 15, 2000.


Yes, I remember them. We had all sorts of controls and regulations on the market in the 1970's. Some of them, such as price controls, were started by Nixon. Nixon was a Republican, but not a strong believer in the free market. I think the windfall profits tax was initiated by Carter, but its hard to remember the year that these things started. Everyone loves business today, even the Democrats. It was not that way in the 70's. My prediction is that people will turn against business again when we see a major decline in the stock market.

-- Dave (dannco@hotmail.com), January 15, 2000.

One of the more stupid things the Carter folks did was to tax "old oil" differently than oil from wells drilled after the law was passed. I know a guy in north Louisiana who made a fortune filling up trucks with "old oil" (price controlled) and selling it as "new oil" at the higher market price. He just drove the trucks around and changed the invoices. Now a multimillionaire. This just shows how stupid the Carter folks were about human behaviour and the ability to evade price controls. At that time in the late 70's the good ole boys in the oil patch had bumper stickers that read "Let the damnyankees freeze in the dark." That is how pissed they were over the Carter price controls. Now the bumper stickers read "Please God, let there be one more oil boom, and I promise not to piss it away this time."

-- Les (holladayl@aol.com), January 16, 2000.

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