Not only did it record its biggest profit in one of the industry’s most turbulent years. That could have been a matter of a few well-placed bets. But from all accounts, the company is very well managed all down the line. From today’s NYTimes:
More than any other oil company, managers at Exxon emphasize a strict attention to containing costs, and are disciplined about their investments. As a result, the company manages to extract more dollars than its rivals out of each barrel that it pumps or refines.
Maybe we should hire them to oversee the stimulus package — and the bank bailout, for that matter.
He posted the other day that the way to uncover how Bernie Madoff operated was to find his software developers. Then, being Mark Cuban, he decided to do it himself. His findings are very interesting: Madoff’s market-making platform was created by a company owned by a character named Larry Gusto, who’s had his own problems with fraud.