The fact that big oil gets tax breaks when it enjoys profits so large (for example, ExxonMobile had a 53% boost last quarter) that it can't figure out what to do with them all, and instead finds itself buying back its own stock* rather than, oh, I don't know, retaining its earnings to invest them in something useful (say, green energy perhaps?) is sort of a national embarrassment.
* Recognizing, of course, that such stunts tend to increase the value of investors' shares. How virtuous of them. Being that they're subsidized by tax breaks.
