21.   Buoyed by an auto industry earning record profits, the state has boomed in recent years, and unemployment is low.

22.   But Hess and several other producers gave it a good chance of surviving long enough so its investors will get their money back and maybe earn a profit.

23.   But it has left businesses struggling to earn reliable profits on both commodities and manufactured goods.

24.   But investors and analysts responded that such a change would come only if the executives could prove that they could earn profits in the face of an economic slowdown.

25.   But the airlines are also supposed to thrive as businesses in a competitive marketplace, earning enough profits to expand their operations and enrich shareholders.

26.   But the trials did help Response Oncology earn profits.

27.   But the company still earned no profit from making the airplanes because of its production difficulties.

28.   But those trophies were won, those profits were earned, for another corporation.

29.   But they all made money, plenty of it, in the worst of business conditions and some earned more profits than ever.

30.   But Wiggins emphasized that other areas, including investment banking, asset management and brokerage commissions, were earning record profits.