Oil Stocks And United States Energy Independence
This was up from 7.64 billion from the same period a year ago. You will notice that the earnings were just shy of the record 10.71 billion they reported in the fourth quarter of last year, 2005. All companies have cushions; the accountants call them reserves. There is always flexibility in the reporting of a company s earnings. Exxon very easily could have used their flexibility to come in with earnings that were below last year s fourth quarter record in order to avoid the embarrassment of posting another new record quarter. The company knows that the Congress is looking over Exxon s shoulder because the American people are looking over the government s shoulder. This is especially true with Congressional elections, and both houses of Congress up for grabs. Every President of the United States has paid lip service to American energy independence. It s like listening...