Exxon Mobil tops the Fortune 500 list
(CBS News) Oil giant Exxon Mobil tops Fortune magazine's Fortune 500 list.
The latest issue of Fortune magazine has the annual list of America's top earning corporations. In 2011, those 500 companies made a combined profit of $824.5 billion. The 2011 combined profit smashed the previous 2006 record of $785 billion and was a 16.4 percent profit increase over 2010.
"Corporate America is doing great right now," Andy Serwer, Fortune magazine managing editor, said Monday on "CBS This Morning."
"The consumer in America, not so great. Government in the United States, not so well," Serwer said. "But businesses are doing well. They've really come out of the downturn, doing things right. They're in good shape. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they've cut back. They've cut costs during the downturn meaning layoffs quite frankly. That's why profits are so high."
Fortune 500 Top 10 List:
1. Exxon Mobil
2. Walmart Stores
3. Chevron
4. ConocoPhillips
5. General Motors
6. General Electric
7. Berkshire Hathaway
8. Fannie Mae
9. Ford Motor
10. Hewlett-Packard
The May 21, 2012 issue of FORTUNE hits newsstands on Monday, May 7.
For more on the list and what it may indicate about the U.S. economy, watch the full "CBS This Morning" interview with Serwer in the video above.