Private empire : ExxonMobil and American power / Steve Coll.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [659]-664) and index.

"I'm going to the White House on this" -- The end of easy oil. "One right answer" ; "Iron ass" ; "Is the Earth really warming? " ; "Do you really want us as an enemy? " ; "Unknown injury" ; "E.G. month!" ; "The camel and the jackal" ; "We target oil companies" ; "Real men-- they discover oil" ; "It's not quite as bad as it sounds" ; "The Haifa pipeline" ; "How high can we fly? " ; "Assisted regime change" ; "Informed influentials" -- The risk cycle. "On my honor" ; "Chad can live without oil" ; "I pray for Exxon" ; "We will need witnesses" ; "The cash waterfall" ; "Moonshine" ; "Can't the C.I.A. and the Navy solve this problem? " ; "A person would have to eat more than 3,400 rubber ducks" ; "We must end the Age of Oil" ; "Are we out? Or in? " ; "It's not my money to tithe" ; "We're confident you can book the reserves" ; "One plus one has got to equal three" ; "It just happened."

In this book the author goes deep inside ExxonMobil Corp, the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States. He investigates the notoriously secretive ExxonMobil Corporation, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil's annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries, equivalent to the GDP of Norway. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil's sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.