Exxon-Mobil's Historic Profits: More than Anybody Ever

Image from source, Los Angeles Times

Yeesh. ExxonMobile's profits lead me to ask a few questions of any conservatives who may have happened upon my blog on accident.

First, if demand is down, and supply is static, how do oil and gas prices remain so high? Second, if ExxonMobil only raised the price of gas enough to keep its profit margin, why did they make so much money? Shouldn't profits remain static? And third, while I understand why people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are carrying water for Big Oil, why are you?

I've seen and heard ordinary Joe Citizen conservatives leaping to Big Oil's defense. Enthusiastically, they swallow whole the utter bull crap that off-shore oil leases and drilling in ANWR is the answer. They want to give Big Oil even more wealth. Assume it was all true, and that oil would flow freely. Do you think that's for us? No, it would be sold on the world market, and ExxonMobil gets even richer. I seriously don't see how this comes down to conservative vs. liberal.

[Excerpt]

If only Exxon could earn money like Disney

The net profit on those sales: $11.68 billion, which just happens to be the largest quarterly profit ever earned by a U.S. company.

But Exxon’s net profit margin of about 8.5% -- net income as a percentage of revenue -- pales when compared with what many other blue-chip companies earned in the latest quarter. . .

Read more at: Los Angeles Times