Introduction
Today’s column treats with my support for the well-sustained assertion to the effect that ExxonMobil, in the second half of the 2010s and certainly all of 2020, had become a classic zombie firm, as defined in last week’s column as a business, finance and economics concept. Among the several scores of studies of zombie firms that are readily available online, ExxonMobil is one of the — if not the most — frequently cited examples of an iconic US firm that has become a zombie.
This literature highlights the fact that, as defined last week, there are over 600 zombie firms identified in the United States. In addition, the combined indebtedness of these firms is estimated to be as much as 2.66 trillion US dollars. This sum is approximately 10 percent of the US GDP.