Comments on: Is Exxon Mobil Getting Hosed?

By: Congress Uses Big Oil as Scapegoat | Babeled

Congress Uses Big Oil as Scapegoat | Babeled — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:27:08 +0000

[...] as a scapegoat for the undesirable effects of poor policy and governance. Today, Executives from five major energy companies were grilled by Congress amidst the clamor of the American public on rising oil prices. [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:52:48 +0000

One thing I find conspicuous in its absence.
Any news whatsoever when Exxon paid $30B in taxes. To put it into perspective the bottom of 50% of US citizens paid $27B.

By: Mad Dog Fargo

Mad Dog Fargo — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:29:03 +0000

We are definitely being gouged at the pump. But I noticed something interesting.

I passed 2 Exxon stations in my city that DID NOT INCREASE PRICES AT ALL this weekend. Some of their competitors however went up as much as 50-75%.

You can imagine my disbelief+elation when I paid $3.99/gallon for PREMIUM at my local Exxon. I’ve got to give them Kudos for controlling their gas prices this past weekend!

By: Why does gas cost so much? | Atlas Editorials

Why does gas cost so much? | Atlas Editorials — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:39:43 +0000

[...] myself uncomfortable getting behind any of these claims without seeing clear evidence. Thanks to a very intelligent analysis by Jayson Morgan, companies like Exxon Mobil are not to blame. They are simply optimizing their operations, just as [...]

By: Classified

Classified — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:55:00 +0000

it’s the bulk of sales that make the profit. you sell a 100 billion units at 1 cent profit you make a billion dollers…

By: Jason Morgan

Jason Morgan — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:24:33 +0000

Incredulous – interesting point. Too bad homeless people don’t sell a commodity that everyone needs, like Exxon Mobil or it’s counterparts, and therefore the situations are mutually exclusive and have no relevance to reality.

By: Andrew Blanco

Andrew Blanco — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:16:53 +0000

heh…nerdlinger…nerds who linger…

By: incredulous

incredulous — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:49:11 +0000

I dare any of you nerdlingers to spout your capitalist jargon at a homeless shelter, or a foodbank. “Hey everybody! 39 billion dollars is actually a fair profit for these grass-roots oil companies. They’re just like you and me! Just trying to make a decent living.” I’m sure that would go over well.

By: Gregory Rineberg

Gregory Rineberg — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:30:40 +0000

It looks like Chavez just the gave the finger to Exxon.

By: Jason Morgan

Jason Morgan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:31:48 +0000

Tony & Justin – refreshing to read intelligent comments by informed readers, thank you.

@Josh-At least you admitted that you know nothing, and your comment demonstrates that fully. Let’s use your formula as an example:
Product X Cost per unit: $0.60
Product X unit selling price: $1.00

Your formula (which is a horrible misunderstanding of the situation, by the way…) would lead a person to believe that the profit derived from the above situation with “Product X” is $0.40, which is not true. The $0.40 calculated is the Gross Margin. The administrative costs, depreciation & amortization, interest and taxes all then come out of the $0.40 per unit gross profit. Not too shabby to pay for all those things with about $0.30 per unit sold. This leaves $0.10 in profit per unit.

OK – brace yourself for true understanding, a moment of clarity, if you will: Take the above Product X scenario. If you are running an operation, like a lemonade stand, that sells 150 glasses (units) per day, then the stand’s sales would be $150, the gross margin would be $60, and the profit would be $15. Now imagine a company that sells something that almost everyone needs and those who needs it will ALWAYS need it….say crude oil, for example, and this company sells 150 billion gallons (units) in a year using the same characteristics for Product X. The sales would be $150 billion, the gross margin would be $60 billion, and the profit would be $15 billion.

Do you see that it is the magnitude of the product that is being discussed that results in the $39 billion in profits, not that the companies are selling “…it to a captive market for X+Y amount and you walk away with billions and billions of dollars profit, you are OVERCHARGING” – not so, I’m afraid. Are you saying that the lemonade stand is over charging because they make $15 a day? So if the lemonade stand sold more glasses of lemonade, they should LOWER the price, even though the demand is increasing? That doesn’t make any sense.