EVERYBODY LOVES (LEE) RAYMOND

Everyone is up in arms that former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief Lee Raymond gets a $327 million retirement package. And his home on Meadowbrook is valued by Dallas County at $3,708,400. (On today’s market, Realtors say it would be listed at about $5,000,000.) At first blush, we might think gosh, Lee is sure greedy. His salary was $41 million a year at Exxon, enough to pay that Meadowbrook mortgage and more. But then I did a little math:

$327,000,000 divided by 6 billion (the number of outstanding shares of Exxon stock) equals .0595 per share. Which means his retirement package cost a little over a nickle per share. Full disclosure here — I hold some stock in Exxon. (Wish I had more.) I guess I do not mind giving the guy a nickle per share for keeping my investments solid.

But I do think he should at least invite me over to the house for a glass of wine.