Huh?

Exxon Mobil posted the highest profits of any company ever, all because they were capitalizing on a political situation created by their buddy the President.

Normally, actions like that are call "war profiteering" and there's plenty of precedence that it's perfectly constitutional to punish individuals and companies for it. The only reason Exxon got away with it is because they're literally friends with the folks running the country.

So, if we're going to throw billions of dollars at the auto industry (which is a terrible idea) at least take it from the oil companies that rely on the auto industry rather than the American people. 'Course, if you try that, the oil companies would never agree because they're not idiots like the American people who seem fine with blowing billions of taxpayer money to prolong this mess. So the only way to get the money from Exxon, etc is to go after it with a windfall tax.

This is not the highest profits on a percentage basis by a long shot. They made the most money because they are one of the largest companies in the world, #2 behind Walmart in revenue in 2007.

Percentage wise, they made 11%. GE which was 12th made over 12%, why not hit them? HSBC #20, 13%,... [GM #9, -20% :( ]

Many smaller cap companies make 12%, 15, 20% and even higher... Any windfall profits tax should be based on percentages, not absolute earnings or at least some sort of sliding scale as with personal income tax...

At the end of the day exxon is not to blame. We need to pony up and pick a system. Capitalism promotes prophets at the expense of others it is the name of the game. The oil producer is not to blame, the corrupt system is at fault. Surroundings dictate the needs. We encourage industry to do anything it takes to make money but when they do we call them evil and want to punish them. Any fault that should be applied is to the individuals that allowed them to violate the rules. Everything that Exxon has done has been done
“legally”. Our problem is with the system and the people that run it not the people that are good at it. While we are at it why don’t we all hate the Yankees. Again I not saying that Exxon and Walmart are full of good people doing good things. I do not hate them for being successful, rather for doing things that the system allows.

"Capitalism promotes prophets"

That's the best unintended homophone funny since some guy told me he was going to be "Upping the anti"

LOL woops:lol:

Actually I do hate the Yankees. But not Exxon, at least not for being good at capitalism.

I do to:lol:.

Good news for Nevada State Employees! :rolleyes:

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/mis...entId=blogDest

I guess its still better than California, which laid off a bunch of teachers and is giving IOUs instead of tax refunds this year.

I kind of dread looking at this tread, hoping that no one I know here gets laid off.

Screw them, I'm on grant funding. I'm giving myself a raise.

Not just tax refund IOUs but possible IOU paycheck on Feb 1st for me. May be looking for work to help pay the bills.

Ouch, you're right, I heard that too.

Utilities companies don't take state issues IOUs as payment, do they?

Looking into all the services we can turn off and what we want to keep. Just have to keep the roof over our heads and the heat on. That may even be a challenge if it goes more then a month or so.

2 of 8 Managers and 1 of 2 Staff members and supervisor were laid off here.

whew, that was close.

Phew! Are you still working for JCPenny's Warehouse?
Glad to hear you made the cut.

Yeah, still there. JCPenney

Is Brian Pulizzi still there?

barely.

Hey, look at that... the S&P closed today the lowest it's been since 1997. We have officially given back everything we ever gained since the dot-com boom. :unamused:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...sNZgQ&refer=us

Also, there's a high probability my company is going under soon. Yay.

That suck man... sorry to hear. Are they going to put together any sort of severance, or is this one of those show up one morning to a stack of boxes in your cube deals?

You planning on staying in Cary if it goes under? How's the job market there?

:mad:

It might be a show-up-to-padlocked-doors kinda deal, depending on how this goes down. The owners haven't said a word yet, but our controller who handles all the money.. told me privately that there is barely enough to make payroll on Friday. And nothing really coming in. So... yeah. I'm working on my resume tonight.

We want to stay here in our house if at all possible and I'm gonna look locally.. but who knows.

Ug, that sounds like fun.

You guys aren't upside-down on your house are you? If you have to move, at least there are tons of cheap places out there all over the country.

Just stay outta California... :lol:

Round 2 of layoff's just happened at our company. 10% cut. We lost 1 out of our office, 17 out of corporate and not all the offices have announced their layoffs yet.
Phew. I'm just hoping I stay important here.