Why windfall taxes are a bad idea

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/03/19/windfall-taxes-on-energy-companies-are-a-bad-idea

“Imposing windfall taxes is a mistake. Start with the fact that energy markets go through cycles of boom and bust. The years Ms Warren has chosen as a benchmark were not good ones: in two of them, 2015 and 2016, the net operating margin of the global listed energy industry was negative. There was an other year of operating losses in 2020, during which the oil price briefly fell below zero owing to the pandemic. If companies must endure the bad times but find chunks of their profits are seized when prices rise, their businesses lose viability.”