Don't Cry For Me, Exxon Mobile

By now you've caught the little news blurb that Exxon Mobil has set a corporate record for annual profit in 2007 at $40.6 billion. What the blurbs didn't mention is that the record Exxon Mobile beat was . . . drum roll please . . . it's own record from 2006, when it posted profits of $39.4 billion.

Two years of record breaking profits. It's a rough life over there in big oil these days, isn't it. Fortunately for those poor guys, it's not a lonely world. The four largest companies operating in the U.S. - Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips managed to bring in $100-million in combined profits last year.

So before you go railing against the oil companies again, think about how hard it is for these poor guys to survive in the global economy with profits that only make them financially larger than most nations on the planet. After all, what would a nation like Chad or Bangladesh do with all that money - probably just waste it on food and medicine for people.