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Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Originally posted by Aelita
but don't you think that tax incentives etc was one of the factors that helped him turn profit at Exxon? And he gets the credit?
Certainly. But getting or preserving the incentives was likely a parameter of his job and one of the metrics under which his exit package was assembled. We can't fault corporations for getting tax incentives they ask for... nor CEO's for asking for them... that's just good governance for a public corporation. This is an administration issue.
Exxon Mobil 2Q Profit Jumps 36 Percent
Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.
The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices helped boost the company's revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record.
Exxon Mobil's report comes a day after another large U.S. oil company, ConocoPhillips, said it earned more than $5 billion in the quarter and at a time when many drivers in the U.S. are paying $3 for a gallon of gas _ increasing the likelihood of further political backlash in Washington.
More...
Originally posted by Hamburglar
It certainly puts it into perspective.
For the oil companies, people see them as evil for a quaterly profit margin under 10%.
Microsoft, on the other hand, posts 31% profit, which is about 13 billion based on revenue. That is significantly more than the oil companies' profits.
Maybe all Windows owners should get $100 back from Uncle Sam.
Or maybe SO is right on this one, and we are being led about by our nose on a non-troversial issue.
Originally posted by djohnsto77
I think this is a non-issue. As already said oil company profit margins are actually lower than many other industries.
Petroleum is a hightly capital intensive industry, and there have been many times where they were actually losing money because it took more money to extract the oil from the Earth than they could sell it for.
Now, they're making a nice profit, and I think it's deserved. If you think Exxon is going to be making huge profits going forward (again, as already said) buy some stock in it!
Originally posted by rich23
Well the numbers on Microsoft amply explain why most people - especially those who are hooked into their crappy operating system like me - hate Microsoft and the profiteering Bill Gates. These numbers should be viewed as an aberration, not as the norm.
Plus, MS do their best to operate as a monopoly. There was a superb comment from the judge who sat on their antitrust suit involving their attempt to bury Netscape, which involved MS claiming that Internet Explorer could not be detached from Windows, which would not run without it. The judge got a friendly geek to strip out IE and replace it with Netscape on a computer especially set up in his chambers. Despite all this, the MS lawyers continued to press their point. The judge wound up saying that
Originally posted by Aelita
To Sceptic Overlord:
what about the tax breaks for the oil industry? Do you agree they should have those? If yes, why? I sort of feel the $400M retirement package for the outgoing Exxon CEO comes from our W-2s and 1040s, don't you think?
Well the numbers on Microsoft amply explain why most people - especially those who are hooked into their crappy operating system like me - hate Microsoft and the profiteering Bill Gates. These numbers should be viewed as an aberration, not as the norm.
Let me remind you this country was built on FREEDOM not capitalism.
The high profit of oil companies is based on MASSIVE profit margins
"...invest in the stock market .... where all our taxes go after handouts to the corporate elite.
"...most places don't have ethanol and the public in general is to uneducated on the subject to realize how it can benfit.."
Originally posted by zappafan1
Anyone here bitching about their banks profits? I didn't think so.
As for "gouging": from 1977 to 2004, american oil companies have profited $640 Billion dollars. Over the same period Federal and state taxes totalled $1.4 TRILLION dollars for doing absolutely nothing. Now THATS gouging, and there should indeed be an investigation.
REPLY: Again.... 12 cents per dollar is a massive profit???
With prices riding high, Russia rakes in about US$550 million (euro430 million) in oil and gas revenues per day -- US$380,000 (about euro306,000) every minute. The state gets 65 percent of that. Oil and gas exports account for about 60 percent of federal budget revenues and 60 percent of its exports.
The oil windfall has meant that, since the August 1998 financial collapse, Russia's hard currency reserves have soared from a feeble US$12.5 billion (euro9.8 billion) to US$247.1 billion (euro193.2 billion) -- and given its economy a stronger claim to belonging in the elite group of nations whose leaders will meet in St. Petersburg this week.
Meanwhile, the government is busy funneling oil companies' profits above US$27 (euro21) per barrel into an inflation-fighting stabilization fund, which as of the end of June stood at US$76 billion (euro59 billion). This year it will use US$22 billion (euro17 billion) of that to pay off its remaining debts to the Paris Club of creditor nations. That's a far cry from the years when it could scarcely make the interest payments on its foreign borrowings.
www.businessweek.com...
REPLY: Let me get this straight... AFTER you get your taxes, you want to invest them, after they all go to the corporate elite??? If it "all" goes to them, what are you going to invest???
Listen folks... the numbers mentioned for record profits are pre-tax dollars, of which about 38% goes to taxes. over 60% of those profits were from sales to the rest of the world..... it didn't all come out of your pocket.
Originally posted by zappafan1
Anyone here bitching about their banks profits? I didn't think so.
Well, banks at least serve some kind of purpose which would be far harder to dispense with than anything big oil gives us.
I say we send some marines in to arrest all the board of directors and sieze the oil companies and nationalize them. Really what the hell is wrong with that? Then we can actually have those profits used to build refineries, researching better engines, invest in more alternatives. Energy should be in control of the people, not 10 people sitting in a board room pondering the size of their next yacht.
We have had alterantive sources of energy for nearly a century and all they have done is help prevent those being introduced into the general economy.
".... after the oil giants rake in 27 USD per barrel
The conspiracy of the corrupt american banking system is probably one of the most discussed conspiracies on the internet and it strikes directly at the root of bank profits. And like the oil conspiracy, the banking conspiracy is stacked in favor of the corporate interests.
Originally posted by zappafan1
The Central Bank is another issue, but I agree it should be abolished. However, it is totally different from the oil issues.