It's a rich man's world

Rant and Rave - These days it's hard to turn on a radio or television, or open any newspaper or magazine without seeing some reference to the world's economic troubles, impending recessions and general doom and gloom.

And for certain, there is trouble in many sectors as the waves caused by the credit crisis south of the border wash over industry and business around the globe. There are some people who are losing their homes, their jobs and their retirement savings.

But, there is still money to be made in this world; just have a read through some of this year's third quarter earnings reports from some companies. Try these on for size:

Loblaw Cos., owner of Superstore and Dominion grocery stores among others, reported profits of $155 million, while Wal-Mart reported net income of $3.14 billion.

While facing falling numbers, telephone giants Telus and Bell Canada reported net income of $285 million and $280 million respectively. (Bell said its profits would have been higher except for costs, some related to cutting some 2,500 jobs.)

Imperial Oil, Canada's largest oil company, reported a 70 per cent jump in net profits to nearly $1.4 billion. Imperial is controlled by the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobile Corp, which broke its own record for the biggest profit by operations by an American company raking in net-profits of $14.83 billion in the third quarter.

Just to put that last number into perspective, Exxon made about the same amount of money in three months as countries like Sierra Leone or Belize report producing in a year, according to their 2007 gross domestic product figures.

Oh, and one more: Molson Coors reported net income of $173.2 million for the quarter - selling just over 12 million barrels of beer worldwide in that time.

After reading some of those numbers, care for a cold one?

nmusseau@gulfnews.ca