Exxon Biggest Profit in History
January 30, 2006
After a year of accusations of price gauging, Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday _ $10.71 billion (the last quarter is post New Orleans Flood) for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year _ as the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and gas prices and demand for refined products. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Exxon shares rose nearly 3 percent in morning trading.
This falls in line with pundits like Bill O’Reilly who has accused big Oil as taking advantage of the KAtrina disaster to gauge us.
I remember in LA after the Northridge earthquake. Enteprising people drove into the Valley to sell much needed water. The cost was to say the least, HUGE. Like $20 for a liter of water. They were being arrested.
Arguably, they were just entrepreneurs. They were not monopolistic by any definition.
The people who lived in the Valley could have spent a half hour or an hour driving over the hill to get their supply of water virtually for free.
However, Big Oil is for all intensive purposes a monopoly. And their gauging is acceptable?
Reactions
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.