At Exxon Mobil, a Record Profit but No Fanfare

[rpannier]

Exxon Mobil, aided by strong energy prices, disclosed Monday that it had set a record for profits among American companies, reporting $36 billion in annual income. But while most companies would be proud to trumpet record profits, Exxon Mobil did everything it could to play down the news.

For Exxon Mobil, which also handily widened its lead over Wal-Mart as the company with the largest revenues in the nation, the report was an embarrassment of riches. Anxious about criticism of the results, executives began laying the groundwork months ago to try to prevent a political reaction against the company and the energy industry.


snip

If it's Google, no one asks about the profits because they're too busy buying the stock," said Amy Myers Jaffe, associate director of the energy program at Rice University. "Exxon is different. We have these emotional feelings related to gasoline because there's no readily available substitute."


Ms. Jaffe conveniently leaves out that we don't subsidize Google with huge tax breaks and that Google has nothing to do with whether or not people can afford to get to work or freeze in the winter.

The full article can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/business/31exxon.html?ei=5090&en=865bd0ef7d5fb0eb&ex=1296363600&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[cassiepriam]

1. The oligarchy is doing quite well for themselves nt

[acmejack]

2. But don't accuse them of price gouging!

No it is entirely coincidental that they have been recording record profits at the same time that gasoline prices are at record levels. Absolutely zero correlation, none...

[rpannier]

3. Kinda like there was no correlation between by heavy drinking one night

and my falling down the stairs and breaking my arm.

The two had nothing to do with each other.

[AndyA]

4. A local TV news report last night said that 26% of the price of gas

is PURE PROFIT. 26%!

When you think about a profit of $36 billion, and figure out how much per gallon that comes to, it's pretty easy to see we're being taken advantage of. And our current government isn't doing a thing about it. For that reason alone, they should be impeached, recalled, or whatever, from their offices.

Supply, demand, competition do little to impact the pricing of gasoline. All the oil companies keep the price more or less the same. There are no loss leaders to keep things in check.

And there is no responsible government to keep things in check, either. Remember this in November and in 2008. We need to sweep the crap out the back door.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Remember--CEO compensation is an expense, not a profit.

That 26% is what's left after the first circle of buzzards are done picking over the corpse.

(I say "corpse" on purpose because they're plundering a non-renewable resource.)