Profits, Charts and Stuff

Yglesias yammering about profits at da Wal-Martz:

At any rate, looking at this chart I think it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Wal-Mart is the last thing we should be worried about. The worrying trend is the domination of the corporate landscape by super-profitable firms in the heavily regulated energy, banking, and telecom sectors. Similarly, if you want a CEO pay outrage note that ConocoPhillips paid CEO Jim Mulva $10.44 billion in 2009 even though the firm he runs was spectacularly less successful than its two American competitors. Poor Christophe de Margerie, CEO of Total SA in France, had to settle for a mere € 1,552,875.00 to run an oil company that’s both larger and more profitable than Mulva’s.

Which, of course, leads us to this:

George: Now let's try "breast"... Celeste... Kest...
Jerry: No.
George: Rest... Sest... Hest...
Jerry: "Hest"? That's not a name.
George: What, you should've just asked her.
Jerry: I know, I should've asked her.
George: What're you gonna do now?
Jerry: I dunno. I can't ask her now; I've already made out with her. Once you make out with a woman, you can't ask her her name.
George: Aretha!
Jerry: No...
George: Bovary!
Jerry: Alright, that's enough.
George: Alright, well you know what you gotta do, you gotta go through her purse. Y'know, the credit cards, driver's license...
Jerry: How am I gonna do that?
George: When she goes to the bathroom...Mulva!
Jerry: Mulva?
Kramer: C'mon, do you wanna go?
Jerry: Alright, alright. Just let me finish my coffee... then we'll go watch them slice this fat bastard up.