If the Democrats sweep Congress and elect Obama this November, it could happen.

The press has brainwashed the public into believing that Exxon has been making excess profits which can be appropriated by the government through "windfall profits taxes." Obama claims he will use the new taxes to send everyone a check for $1,000. Of course, he will skim a little off the top in the best traditions of Chicago machine politics.

Even Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has taxed "excess oil company profits" in Alaska and sent her voters checks for $1,200. (The rugged folks in Alaska have come to love government bribes, a factor in Palin's 80% approval ratings.)

The press promotes half lies and half truths to stoke public fury.

"EXXON FIRST HALF PROFITS $22.6 BILLION" trumpeted the press.

"EXXON PAYS RECORD FIRST HALF TAXES OF $61.7 BILLION" was a headline buried by the press.

Another buried headline: "EXXON PAYS MORE TAXES THAN 50% OF ALL US TAXPAYERS." (The bottom 50%)

If the Democrats win, where could Exxon go?

Singapore has great attraction for America's overtaxed companies. And its government is highly pro-business and very good behavior oriented. (No one dares demonstrate against a corporation, property or the government. Do you remember the American lad who whose bottom was publicly spanked as punishment for graffiti?)

Even more important, Singapore offers tax holidays for immigrating corporations.

Fifteen years ago, I talked with the president of a high-tech oil explorer located in Westport, Connecticut. He shocked me when he told me, "We've decided to move our headquarters out of Connecticut and to Singapore." The reason? "A huge tax advantage."

Economist Clyde Prestowitz spoke in Naples, Florida, describing the global economy as not flat - but tilted from West to East. He talked of the flow of money and investments from the West to the East. He told of a high-tech American company which was finding its key patents stolen by a South Korean company. The American company approached everyone in Washington, from the State Department to Commerce. No one would help. The South Korean government admitted its company was stealing the patents, but claimed, "We can do nothing because we would lose too many jobs" (based on the stolen patents).

Suddenly an offer for the American company came in from Singapore. The offer was stupendous. If the company would emigrate from the U.S. to Singapore, the Singapore government would handle the stolen patent matter and give the beleaguered American company a tax holiday of 25 years. (Talk about why we lose jobs.)

ExxonMobil already has offices in Singapore (as well as in 42 other countries, many of them pro-business). Suppose Singapore offered ExxonMobil a mere 10-year tax holiday. This would amount to additional profits of more than one trillion dollars over a 10-year period. Could any stockholder-oriented company ignore that kind of offer?

ExxonMobil has already made some moves to lessen its footprint in the USA.

It has put its company-owned gas stations up for sale. It has sold most of its refineries to Valero. More important, the company has been buying back huge quantities of its stock. If the trend continues, ExxonMobil will become a private company in 15 years. This will make the company less accountable and virtually opaque to any government, friendly or otherwise.

ExxonMobil may be taking a page out of the Carnival Cruise Lines playbook. Although Carnival operates out of Miami, the company has saved mountains of taxes by moving its headquarters offshore. Its ships fly under foreign flags, resulting in added tax savings and inoculating the company against American labor laws. (The U.S. cannot even prosecute Carnival shipboard employees for committing felonies.)

At this time, ExxonMobil is being sued by Indonesian villagers who claim the company supported the Indonesian soldiers who allegedly killed and tortured demonstrators at a natural gas plant. A U.S. Federal judge has decided the case should be tried. But it is highly unlikely this kind of suit would see the light of day if ExxonMobil were headquartered in Singapore. Certainly no Russian or Chinese judge would hear such a case lodged against one of their oil companies.

ExxonMobil, if headquartered in Singapore, wouldn't have to worry about American environmental laws that inhibit U.S. exploration and drilling in foreign countries. Singapore is more interested in clean money than in clean soil. This would help ExxonMobil compete on a more level playing field with Chinese and Russian oil companies in Asia and Africa.

ExxonMobil would gain government goodwill by passing out bribes to key officials - a crime in the USA, but not in Europe, Asia and Africa. (Everyone on those continents claims bribes are illegal, but enforcement is very spotty, and corruption is part and parcel of oil and gas exploration in most foreign countries.)

Halliburton has already moved some of its divisional headquarters offshore. There was much public furor, but it happened anyway.

Conoco Philips is selling its U.S. service stations.

Many wealthy Americans have moved their holdings offshore, thus escaping U.S. taxes. It's rumored that a prominent member of Congress has preserved his family's wealth by moving it offshore, thus avoiding America's notorious "death taxes."

If you think an ExxonMobil exodus is far-fetched, you've forgotten your history.

Go back to 1973 and the famed oil embargo. The Saudi government ordered the American oil companies doing business in Saudi Arabia to shut off oil supplies to the U.S. Naval Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. All five American oil companies immediately complied, shocking the American government and its citizens.

The president of one of the companies went on television's talk shows to face down an outraged American government and its citizens.

He said, "You do not understand. We are not American companies. We are world companies. We may be headquartered here, but we are not owned by the U.S. government. We are owned by stockholders and that means we are primarily loyal to our stockholders – and not the American public. It was in our stockholders' interests that we complied with the order from the Saudi Government. And so we did."

For the oil industry, the global economy existed over a century ago.

We now understand that factories will leave high-cost countries and migrate to low-cost countries.

What we have not yet grasped is that the same global economic principle applies to corporations as well. Corporations will move their headquarters from high-cost countries to low-cost countries. (Corporations will even move the headquarters from high-cost states to low-cost states. Kimberly-Clark fled Wisconsin for pro-business Texas after a tiff with the Wisconsin legislature.)

For ExxonMobil, Singapore is as low-cost as it gets for a corporation.

Under a President Obama, supported by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the United States may become as high-cost as it gets.

I am betting that the windfall oil tax is a dog that will not hunt.

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