 | |
| ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- If a state held a yard sale of government entities to bring in some much-needed cash, this might be what it would look like. Two Minnesota lawmakers are asking the state's legislature to consider a proposal that would sell to private firms the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, along with other state property and programs, in an effort to bring in roughly $6 billion or more. Coincidence or not, that's about the same size as the state's estimated budget deficit. State Sen. Geoff Michel and state Rep. Laura Brod -- two Republicans from Minneapolis suburbs -- say they don't want to go about solving the budget crisis in a traditional way. "The discussion is often 'do you tax more, [or] do you spend less?'" Brod says. "But it seems to me that there is a third option out there, and that's reforming how government operates. " They also say their proposal is a way to spark debate over whether government should be in control of certain entities in the first place. "Government doesn't always have to do it," Michel says. Running the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (MSP) is a prime example of something the government could do without, they say. "The airport is a significant asset," Brod adds. "Why is the state running the airport, which provides restaurants and shops and the functions and the operations that a private business probably would do very well? "So what we're looking at is just ... raising the real question of 'what should government be doing?'" Link to Article |
 | |
| HOUSTON (AP) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago. The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007. The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis. In the fourth quarter alone crude tumbled 60 percent, prompting spending and job cuts in an industry that was reporting robust, often record, profits as recently as last summer. With piles of cash and diversified operations, the majors like Exxon Mobil have fared better than many smaller oil and gas companies, but Friday's results show no one is completely insulated from the ongoing malaise. Irving, Texas-based Exxon said net income slid sharply to $7.8 billion, or $1.55 a share, in the October-December period. That compared with $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, in the same period a year ago, when Exxon set a U.S. record for quarterly profit. It has since topped that mark twice, first in last year's second quarter and then with earnings of $14.83 billion in the third quarter. Revenue in the most-recent quarter fell 27 percent to $84.7 billion. Both the per-share and revenue results topped Wall Street forecasts. On average, analysts expected the company to earn $1.45 a share in the latest quarter on revenue of $69.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Link to Article |