"It's just paper - all I own is a pickup truck and a little Wal-Mart stock." - Sam Walton

Sam Walton (1918-1992) was an American businessman and entrepreneur.  In 1945 he started out by purchasing a Ben Franklin store in Newport, Arkansas with $20,000 from his father-in-law and $5,000 he'd saved from the army.  It was here where he pioneered the high volume, low price business model that Wal-Mart dominates today. 

After Walton opened the first Ben Franklin store it took 17 years before he opened the first Wal-Mart.  Good move Sam, I think it worked out for you. He made a ton of money and left it all to his kids and wife.  If you hate Wal-Mart you can thank Sam Walton.

Forbes ranked Sam Walton as the richest man in the United States from 1985 to 1988.

You can't spell Exxon Mobil without booM!  Fortune released their yearly Fortune 500 list today, ranking the nation's largest public companies in order based on 2008 revenue.  Exxon Mobil overtook Wal-Mart to regain the Fortune 500 championship title.  Wal-Mart has held the top spot for six of the last seven years.  

Exxon took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up almost 19 percent from 2007 and continues to pull in record revenue even after the bursting of the oil bubble.  Their profit also wasn't too shabby,  earning $45.2 billion. 

Wal-Mart is still holding up well compared to other retailers as consumers are searching for deals, even if it means shopping at Wal-Mart.  Wally World's 2008 revenue climbed 7 percent to $405.6 billion.  The world's largest retailer took in $13.4 billion in profit, not even 30 percent of Exxon's...

These two giants fared quite well when compared to the remaining 498 companies.  Overall earnings fell 85 percent to $98.9 billion from $645 billion in 2007, the biggest yearly decline since the list was started in 1955.

This will have to be the Quote of the Day soon... "America is getting used to the sound of bubbles bursting," Fortune said.  That's not a good thing, one bubble bursts and we fix it by creating another... Check out more here.