Exxon's Record Profits

Gas prices are at the highest that they have ever been, and Exxon Mobil just reported a $10.9 billion dollars in profits for the first quarter. The second largest quarterly profits by any American company - ever; beaten only by Exxon Mobil's last quarterly profit of over $11 billion.



I understand that much of the price we pay for oil goes to refining and drilling costs, but is $10.9 billion really necessary. You think they could limit their profits to only $5 billion and drop the price of gas a few cents? It just looks a little fishy to me.

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"Masters of War" by Bob Dylan
"When a man assumes public trust, he should consider himself as public property"
-Thomas Jefferson
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
-Albert Einstein
"One man with courage is a majority"
-Thomas Jefferson

Exxon has a legal obligation to make the most profit they can for their investors.

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"True Freedom is the Freedom to oppress others"

and made our dollar the laughing stock of the word, things would be different wouldn't they?

............................. go baby

Well they are in buisness to make money
You have to look at the taxes on gas as well
I live in Illinois every gallon of gas 58 cents per gallon Illinois state tax
If you are in Chicago add another 13 cents per gallon
then there is the Federal Gas tax about 18 cents per gallon

So for every gallon of gas I buy I get taxes 76 cents per gallon and up to 89 cents per gallon. Notice you don't see how much tax you are paying at the pump.

So its not just the oil company's, it's our government as well

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For real coverage of the Iraq war see
http://michaelyon-online.com/

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American…"

The flaw in that plan? Exxon does not control and price of oil or gas. So no, they really can't lower the price of gas.

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now they are working on the airlines, IT AINT THE ANSWER

What does that have to do with the price of oil? Whether there are 5 or 500 oil companies, they still don't control the price of oil or gas. If you don't like the price of something you are free to buy less of it.

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One thing people consistently fail to consider is that companies don't just take all of their profits and hand them over to investors. Divdends are a fraction of income. The rest is invested in the company. Meaning better technologies. Or maybe more jobs. Companies are strongly discouraged from accumulating billions in cash so that means it is being invested in something else.

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JMS gets another English lesson:

Quote:

there is no "mostly unique;" thats like saying "sometimes always," its an oxymoron - its either one or the other.

The result:

Quote:

By the mid-19th century unique had developed a wider meaning, “not typical, unusual,” and it is in this wider sense that it is compared. The comparison of so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.

Investors don't like billions in cash sitting around either. Microsoft shareholders have been complaining about that forever.

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