Some seem to misunderstand profits vs. gross revenue. Profits are what are left over after taxes and all other expenses are taken away from the gross revenue (the total amount of dollars the company takes in).

I don't want to look back at the Exxon statement for Jan-Mar of this year, but their gross revenues were around $50 billion. After they paid 29.3 billion in taxes (only 10 billion was income tax, the other 20 million came from other royalties and penalties installed by your local Senator), and then took out other expenses, they were left with 10.9 billion in profits.

Their return on investment was 8.3% for the period. All industries in the U.S. averaged a 7.8% return on investment. So, Exxon was slightly above average in their return on investment, but they are statistically in line with every other industry in the nation. We must conclude that they are not profit-gouging, nor making "excessive" profits despite the rantings of Hillary and Obama. Those two do not understand Economics 101.

How many on this forum would be happy with an 8.3% return on the dollars you put into the stock market? I suppose most would fire your stock broker if that's all you got back, yet that's exactly what Exxon got.