There's a rash of stories out today about the "huge" profits being earned by Exxon-Mobil Corp. Here's some of the Washington Post version:

Exxon Makes U.S. Corporate History With High Profits

Exxon Mobil Corp. reported today that its 2005 earnings totaled $36.13 billion, the largest annual profit ever for a U.S. company.

The company's annual profit was up 43 percent from the year before.

Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, also reported a $10.71 billion profit for the last quarter, an increase of 27 percent from the year before.

Those are the largest reported net income numbers in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, an analyst for Standard & Poor's in New York. He said the previous records were set by Exxon in the third quarter of last year and in 2004.

We ran through all this just a couple of months ago when the last series of stories about "excessive oil company profits" hit the media. The same answer applies today - a 10% profit margin is not excessive. Every story that doesn't mention the profit in terms of percentage is being disingenuous, and that's all of them. We couldn't find any accounts that mentioned the profit margin as a percentage. AP, Reuters, CNN, the WaPo - they all reported the raw dollar figure without putting it in any context. Unless there's some evidence it's been attained unethically, success should be celebrated in America, not demonized.

Previous:
Econ 101 and “windfall” oil company profits
Big Oil: Too bad they can’t bottle Senators’ hot air and sell it
Senator Boxer “really angry” about free market

Linked at The Mudville Gazette.