Obscene profits?

Are the oil companies making obscene profits?

Part of the answer depends on what "obscene" means.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s profits surged 75 percent to a record $9.92 billion in the third quarter, fueled by high crude oil and natural gas prices, the world's largest publicly traded oil company reported yesterday.

That's a lot of dollars. And a 75% increase is pretty good. But...

Revenue for the Irving, Texas, oil giant neared $101 billion in the quarter – the first time a U.S. company has broken the $100 billion mark in a three-month period.

That works out to 9.8 cents on the dollar. Most places, a profit under 10% is considered reasonable.

It's common for lay people to imagine the oil company having ten billion dollars sitting in a vault somewhere. I have a hunch, though, that they don't. It's kind of in the nature of money to get spent.