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.
But everybody just ignored these fundamentals that the only thing left is punishing high prices.
Poor oil companies , they tried so hard but we forced then to jack prices .
Ummm. No. A $10,000 investment during this period would have grown to $60,000, with the figures you cite.
i think a lot of it is that gasoline is truly a fungible commodity, even at the retail level. Customer loyalty would be based more on credit-card incentives/motives, location inducements (a store in the station, a garage), and convenience of location.
Otherwise they are all pretty much the same. You aren't going to get much in the way of customer loyalty with a one-off promo, when the promo is over people will just go back to their normal pattern.
well said. the ultimate Marxist solution to the "problem" of some living better lives than others is for everyone to just die.
Teddy Roosevelt was one of the hardest liners against these trusts, and one our greatest presidents. Now, you're going to say he was anti-business? Anti-AMERICAN?!?! Get real.
I wonder if Raymond will break down in abject apology and beg the world for forgiveness like GE's Jack Welch, or stand firm and proudly declare he was worth his severance package like NYSE's Dick Grasso?
You have heard of China, right? Take a look at their oil import figures.
Enlighten me. What are their oil import figures?
Apparently he hasn't heard of India either....or realized that when the recession ended (in 2000), the US economy and world economy has BOOMED in the last 5 years.
Are ABCNews' readers really more conservative than Freepers???
How much cash? ...I wonder how many people he'll have to hire to help him spend it?
Do I have to AGAIN mention the competition from BP (British Petroleum), CITGO (Venezuela), Shell (Royal DUTCH Shell, LUKOIL (Russia)-all of which have rapidly INCREASING numbers of service stations in the US? Geeeeez
I didn't realize that this situation is a repeat of that one. The answer is easy, then.
What happened in the last 3 weeks that drove up gas prices by 35 cents or more? What supply and demand? Eh?
Did you ever think that the reason the price is the same for two stations on a corner is because there IS competition? What would that price be if there was ONLY ONE STATION around?
Pretty easy, since he broke up the trusts of standard oil and so on. Which we need now, but we can't get as easily since it's fixed back up since the late 90's.
.....Dad would drive into a Texaco and four men would RUN out to greet him, wash his windows, check his oil, tire pressure, and put in four dollars of regular, which would fill the tank..............
My Dad worked for an advertising agency in the early fifties, and for Exxon, (formerly Humble Oil and Esso) created the "Put a Tiger in your Tank" ad campaign, complete with the little furry tiger tails to hook onto your gas cap.
He remembered a gas war in Texas, which, at the time was $.11 cents a gallon, and for each 10 gallons, you got a free tee-shirt!!!
You have already shown that you don't like facts. But I'll waste this one minute. I suggest that you do a little RESEARCH on the MTBE and Ethanol issue!!!!
I stopped buying exxon gasoline after the Valdez oil spill.
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