Dependable Erection

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Redistributing wealth

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, reported income Thursday that shattered its own record for the biggest profit from operations by a U.S. corporation, earning $14.83 billion in the third quarter.

Yet numbers contained within the company's most recent financial report revealed production numbers that continue to sag, and shares slipped 3 percent in midday trading.

The Irving, Texas-based company has reported unprecedented back-to-back quarters, the end of the most recent coinciding with a rapid plunge in crude prices. Benchmark oil prices fell another $2.91 to $64.59 Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, about 56 percent off record highs in July.

Exxon said net income jumped nearly 58 percent to $2.86 a share in the July-September period. That compares with $9.41 billion, or $1.70 a share, a year ago.

The previous record for U.S. corporate profit was set in the last quarter, when Exxon Mobil earned $11.68 billion.

Revenue rose 35 percent to $137.7 billion.

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2 Comments:

  • Exxon redistributes wealth the old-fashioned way.

    Up to an elite class from everyone else below.

    Oh, and I'll stop complaining about it as soon as Exxon and other robber barons of energy stop doing it.

    This is why "drill, baby, drill" runs against my and perhaps your self-interest. First, the risk of spoiling North Carolina beaches from Atlantic off-shore drilling (still an unknown quantity compared to the Gulf) is irreversible. The beach at Santa Barbara is still goopy and that spill occurred in...1969.

    North Carolina's beaches support a huge industry of summer tourism and fishing, so much so, the legislature in Raleigh moved the first day of school to later in the summer so that we can spend more money there.

    The oil taken from east coast drilling, if it does happen, will not automatically go into NC or even American cars. It will go on the world market.

    For all the risk involved and the lack of a promise to sell the fuel to ourselves, there may be, at best, a 7 month supply of oil in the Atlantic shelf region.

    "Drill, baby, drill" my arse.

    By Blogger Tony, at 8:58 PM  

  • "Drill, baby, drill" my arse.

    Uh, dude?

    By Blogger Barry, at 9:52 PM  

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