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they're making record levels of profit at every stage of production
in two thousand five for example exxon mobil made globally thirty six billion dollars in
profit
now the company will down play
that huge profit number
they'll say well when you compare our profits as a share of our total sales or revenues
we're making about a ten percent rate of return
that's what they tell the general public
that's what they tell lawmakers which by itself is pretty good that's not bad
but when they're talking to wall street when they're talking to shareholders
they're using a much
different methodology to calculate profitability in fact they explicitly say that measuring
profits as a share of sales
is irrelevant that what you need to look at
is a measure of profits as a share of
capital investment right and when you look at
exxon mobil's profit margin on capital investment
it's astronomical
forty six percent profit margin
on their u_s_ drilling operations in two thousand five
fifty nine percent
profit margin on their u_s_ oil refining
operations clearly not only is exxon mobil making a lot of
profit
you know thirty six billion dollars
but their margin of profitability
is extremely high compared to any other industry
and and you know overall since two thousand and one
the largest five oil companies have enjoyed
three hundred and fourteen billion dollars in profits
there's a direct connection
between the record profits
that the oil industry is earning
and the record high prices that consumers are paying
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