The Fortune 500 list of the country’s highest-earning companies came out on Monday, and the top 10 reads like a hot button list for the presidential election: three oil companies, two auto companies, Fannie Mae, and the firm founded by Warren Buffett.
Oil producer Exxon Mobil tops the list, pushing retailer Wal-Mart Stores, which held the top spot last year, into second place. Chevron checks in at third and ConocoPhillips is fourth. Oil companies--and their profits--have been a frequent topic of discussion, as gasoline prices, alternative energy, and taxes have been debated on the national stage. President Obama himself has attacked oil producers over the tax breaks they receive.
General Motors, which received a bailout from taxpayers in both 2008 and 2009, checks in at fifth and Ford, which did not, lands in ninth. Automakers, too, have been the topic of campaign rhetoric, with Obama and Romney offering different views of the bailout. The Obama campaign is out this week with an ad in nine swing states touting the bailout.
Beleaguered mortgage giant Fannie Mae is eighth and Berkshire Hathaway, the firm founded by Warren Buffett, is seventh. A bill named after Buffett went down to defeat in the Senate last month: The so-called Buffett Rule would have raised taxes on those individuals earning more than $1 million annually.
Here's the Top 10:
1. Exxon Mobil
2. Wal-Mart Stores
3. Chevron
4. ConocoPhillips
5. General Motors
6. General Electric
7. Berkshire Hathaway
8. Fannie Mae
9. Ford Motor
10. Hewlett-Packard
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