Posted on 04/14/2006 1:20:10 PM PDT by aShepard
April 14, 2006— Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining.
Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.
Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.
Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.
"We're all in this together, everywhere in the world," he testified.
Raymond, however, was confronted with caustic complaints about his compensation.
"In 2004, Mr. Raymond, your bonus was over $3.6 million," Sen. Barbara Boxer said.
That was before new corporate documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed Raymond's retirement deal and his $51.1 million paycheck in 2005. That's equivalent to $141,000 a day, nearly $6,000 an hour. It's almost more than five times what the CEO of Chevron made.
"I think it will spark a lot of outrage," said Sarah Anderson, a fellow in the global economy program at the Institute for Policy Studies, an independent think tank. "Clearly much of his high-level pay is due to the high price of gas."
Exxon defends Raymond's compensation, pointing out that during the 12 years he ran the company, Exxon became the largest oil company in the world and that the stock price went up 500 percent.
A company spokesman said the compensation package reflected "a very long and distinguished career."
Some Exxon shareholders are now trying to pass resolutions criticizing the company's executive pay policies. The company is urging other shareholders to vote against those resolutions.
When did a stockholder ever get to vote on a CEO's salary?
<sigh> Why don't the Republicans ever come up with great ideas like this? Maybe we should all support the Democrats, since it's always people like Dick Durbin who keep coming up with ideas like this, which judging from this thread, so many Freepers would surely support.
(ugh)
Not only does Exxon compete with other US oil companies, they also have to compete with growing numbers of FOREIGN OWNED oil companies!
Shell (aka as Royal DUTCH Shell--guess who owns them)?
CITGO (wholly-onwed subsidiary of a Venezuelan oil company)
BP (this is an easy one. British Petroleum is about as big as Exxon)
LUKOIL (new guy on the block--competition from this Russian oil company as it has begun a huge expansion program. Just drive around New York)
Is that enough, or do you want more examples of competition?
Uh, most stations are PRIVATELY owned. Ask the owners of such stations in question. Exxon/Mobil owns and operates less than 1000 of the 165000+gas stations in the US.
I hope you noticed the sarcasm part of that post!...lol
Thats right crazy us , 400 million is a spit in the ocean .
......Don't quote me here but if they took the $400m away from him and gave some to every driver in the US it would come out to what? $3.00.".........
And, don't quote me here, but if your logic stands, give the President his salary, and he's worth just about $.01 per citizen!
Great post. Yep, just what we need is to add THOSE costs to the price of a gallon of gas. That's a perfect example of how COMPETITION got rid of the perks!
Why do they have to? -- they're doing fine.
Companies need to compete for your business when their business is slow. When the demand is insatiable and at their capacity, they don't need more business and to take away their competitors' business.
Even at higher prices, demand is still increasing. The only thing that will drive prices down is to decrease the demand (consumption) -- including moving to the microcar instead of the maxicars that are so fashionable. But everybody just ignored these fundamentals that the only thing left is punishing high prices.
Gonna announce yourself as the official Exxonmobil spokesperson yet? Your phoney drooling over exxon isn't fooling anyone, look at the posts on this thread.
"Time for the Free Traders to chime in and insist that Exxon is just a buncha good ole boys never meanin' no harm, and that we should be glad to pay whatever they ask for gas because they're shining examples of the capitalist ideal."
Yup. Shining examples. And when someone creates something that works better, we will buy that.
If you don't like Exxon, go to Shell and pay it there. Or maybe Texaco, or BP or Citgo. Then again, maybe we should drill off our shores and lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Or maybe get rid of gasoline taxes and boutique gasolines which drive proces higher.
Amazing, the left said we went to Iraq to steal their oil, yet prices are rising and we don't have their oil.
"The largest mark-up items are probably those Little Hostess Donut Gems you buy every morning."
Actually I had a fresh-scrambled egg with some fried link sausage and a side of red bell pepper this morning. Black coffee, no creamer or sweetener.
Hey, wait a sec... You were trying to insult me weren't you? Not necessary, HG. You only THOUGHT I was whining...
:)
Careful sweetie, I think you're about to bust out in tears.
.........He should get 2x that amount just for the way he was sneering at the Senate committee when the oil company CEOs were summoned to testify. His disgust of government was obvious and classic...............
The sneer was only effective when he got his ten chins out of the way! LOL
Nobody is talking about price controls or profit controls. What we want is a fair FREE MARKET.
What division do you work for again?
I made sure not to clip it out. :-)
I figure they paid him $1,500 just to take a dump.
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