$10.71 Billion Profit for Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Sees Record Profit for U.S. Co.

That's bigger than the GDP of some decent sized countries.

Yeah, there was no price gouging...

What's the over/under on the rationalization post describing why this is a good thing?

Very quickly, Q4 EBIT margins for '05 vs. '04:

2005: 17.718/99.662 = 17.78%
2004: 13.265/83.265 = 15.91%

So yeah, EBIT margin went up by 12% Q4 yoy. Someone else can search for operating margin data.

Oh, and here's the full year:
2005: 59/371 = 15.9%
2004: 41/298 = 13.75%

A 15.6% increase for FY05 vs. FY04 overall. Not a bad year for XOM.

/But I thought gasoline demand was price-elastic!

So do you think it's a good thing after reading Obie's post?

ALL HAIL THE KING!!!!!
Nothing but admiration for this company and the profits it makes.

as for margins......

2004-- 25.33/298.04=8.49%
2005-- 36.3/371=9.78%

under 10% margin is hardly gouging.

Nah there is no gouging going on, and there certainly is no price fixing going on. I mean every gas station has their prices go up and down on the same day everywhere by the same amount is just market correction right?

Since Bush has taken over, gas prices have doubled, oil companies are making the most profits in their history, profit margins have increased by 35%.

On top of all this, our tax money subsidizes oil companies to the tune of about 25 billion a year, and a large percentage of our foreign affiars and military outlays go o to protecting the supply.

Of course- because it's a government-supported and -protected industry that has nothing to with the free market. You big-government republicans kill me.

0% of tax money should be helping these giants......... corporate welfare pisses me off so much more than the "people" welfare everyone whines so much about.

Whether or not you buy gasoline, you're still affected by its price.

Unless, of course, you live in a cave.

Oh, and Wingtips is a nutcase.

I agree, we should not be granting welfare to the corporations. Let's cut corporate/farm welfare and save our government over $100 billion/yr.

so it is Bush' fault that the cost of oil has increased? you can honestly blame him when dictators in the Middle East and increasingly Socialist governments in Russia/South America control around 90% of our oil supply (all of whom are awash in money right now with the rise in gas prices)?

Q.E.D.

Partly. He's directly responsible for the dramatic reduction in Iraqi oil exports.

Good for Exxon, they've really helped out my Roth IRA this year.

It's a commodity, we're not talking about Widgets here.

Did you see where gas companies were bitching about Jewel and Wal-Mart because they were selling gas a couple of cents lower then everyone else?

On that note, how can Food for Less and Ultra sell the same product Jewel does but for a dollar less? Aren't those commodities as well?

Corporate Welfare is a tool of the Republicans to increase tax revenue in their districts and elicit campaign contributions
Personal Welfare is a tool of the Democrats to increase their constituency.

Which product are you talking about?

I'm sure it's pure coincidence that the oil companies are posting record profits at a time when gas prices are skyrocketing. Money falls out the sky all the time.

The whole "they are just making their normal margins" argument kind of falls flat when set against the "prices have to be higher because of Katrina" argument.

Should the oil companies be insulated in their profit margins from the forces of nature with all of the costs passed on to us through the pump?

The answer is that they shouldn't be, but they can be because we are dealing with a text book oligopoly.

Lets see Ice Cream, Dawn, Coke Products, steaks, a whole litany of products.