company in the history of companies. from a company as massive and as powerful and as rich as exxon. exxon holds the all-time record in the united states for quarterly profits for a corporation. ever. to achieve that record, they had to beat out themselves since exxon held the previous record for the most profitable corporation in any one quarter ever. last year exxon s $45 billion profit, profit, $45 billion take home, last year exxon s $45 billion in profit ranked it number two on the fortune 500 list of the most profitable u.s. companies. that $45 billion profit last year represents a down year for exxon. steve coll s book called private empire describes an empire that s so big and rich it s adopted an internal corporate philosophy not just global in outlook, not just
can expect from exxonmobil. maybe this is the best that exxon can do, but it s hard not to expect more from the richest company in the history of companies. from a company as massive and as powerful and as rich as exxon. exxon holds the all-time record in the united states for quarterly profits for a corporation. ever. to aheave that record, they had to beat out themselves since exxon held the previous record for the most profitable corporation in any one quart e ever. last year exxon s $45 billion profit, profit, $45 billion take home, last year exxon s $45 billion in profit ranked it number two on the fortune 500 list of the most profitable u.s. companies. that $45 billion profit last year represents a down year for exxon. steve cull s book called private empire describes an empire that s so big and rich it s adopted an internal corporate philosophy not just
sanctions against iran, what ended up being the most devastating when those sanctions went after iranian banks. they essentially cut off all iranian banks from doing any international transaction. isolated iran s economy from the world in a way that was absolutely crippling and happened almost immediately. that s not just any other kind of sanction. that s kind of an economic death blow. and that is, in theory, at least, on the menu of choices for the europeans and for the united states. those kind of things work best if you coordinate. they could do that to russian banks. it could take a lot of international coordination, diplomacy, determination, but it would basically in one blow backhand russia 40 years into the past in terms of its economy. and then there s also the matter of not just russian companies and russian banks, but american companies and european companies. it is illegal for u.s. companies to do business in iran right now except in very limited circumstances. as the u.
there are four people on both lists who they overlap, sanctioned by the european union and the u.s. the lists could expand. could start to be more overlap between the two lists which would make things harder for the people on them. it would not be unprecedented to extend the sanctions list, adding those individuals but more individuals, also their entire families. that has been done before. not only makes the sanctions wider ranging but stops ways people can use their own family members to evade those personal sanctions. president obama also announced today he signed an executive order giving himself the authorization to sanction businesses. specifically he mentioned people involved in the russian arms trade. it would sharply increase the bite of sanctions to essentially stop the international economic activity of individual russian businessmen and businesswomen and russian companies operating abroad. in the years of ratcheting up
entire families. that has been done before. not only makes the sanctions wider ranging but stops ways people can use their own family members to evade those personal sanctions. president obama also announced today he signed an executive order giving himself the authorization to sanction businesses. specifically he mentioned people involved in the russian arms trade. it would sharply increase the bite of sanctions to essentially stop the international economic activity of individual russian businessmen and businesswomen and russian companies operating abroad. in the years of ratcheting up sanctions against iran, what ended up being the most devastating when those sanctions went after iranian banks. they essentially cut off all iranian banks from doing any international transaction. isolated iran s economy from the world in a way that was absolutely crippling and happened almost immediately. that s not just any other kind of sanction. that s kind of an economic death blow.