1/30/2009

On the brink of collapse!!....., well, not really.

This article foresees doom for the sliding profits of the oil companies. Well, the profits are falling, but no one is talking about the potential collapse of the big names in global oil. Exxon posted a 33% fourth quarter earning shortage as compared to last year's Q4 earnings. It sounds rough, but I'm sure no one had been fired because the company only made $7.8 Billion in "Revenue-Cost". It is a volatile market for profits in the oil market right now, but when the question is "windfall profits or semi-windfall?", I would say it is safe to live in Texas for the time-being.

2 comments:

Dr. Tufte said...

Like a lot of popular articles that pretend to portray "economics" this one emphasizes the wrong point.

The issue really isn't the total profits: oil companies have economies of scale, and will be big with big profits no matter what.

What makes more of a difference is how much profit they make per employee, and that isn't listed here.

anthony said...

It's absolutely true how some people complain and worry about things they should not. The big oil names are some of the most profitable on earth, and it's not likely any of them will greatly suffer in this economy.