I think I might be the only person around who didn't realize that hostess was on the verge of liquidation until I saw the story this morning that they were being liquidated. Although I don't particularly like Twinkies, it made me extraordinarily sad to see it go. Besides, without Twinkies Zombie land would have been much less of a movie. Anyway, that's beside the point.
Anyone who has been watching markets closely for the past few years undoubtedly knows about the BP oil spill saga, which is still dragging along now. What shocked me, however, was the fact that they agreed to a $4.5 billion penalty which had them admit felony charges and on top of it have two of their employees charged with manslaughter. Are you kidding me?? At what point is enough enough with this issue.
Besides, they are still liable for more civil penalties plus the some 20 billion they have already plowed into the fund for the gulf and countless other dollars that they have spent in court and elsewhere recovering from this. I think they have taken a charge of like $42 billion dollars because of this mess.
If you can't already tell, I think this has become ridiculous in every sense of the word. I'm not particularly worried about BP surviving, though I would be interested if anyone covers BP and has figured out how much they can take financially... I'd imagine that they can take quite a bit considering how large they are and that they've already divested plenty of assets over this. So what do you guys think regarding BP? Have they not paid enough? Too much? What kind of impact could this have on the future of off coast oil exploration and deep water drilling?
As a side note, something I do find interesting is that BP was the largest supplier to the Pentagon in 2011 with a 1.35 billion dollar contract with them. Obviously, BP could face some bans on drilling contracts in the US and it makes you wonder how much they are simply lying down and taking it because of the political fallout and ramifications.
For many of NOLA's residents (the same folks who though they'd be just fine when a category five hurricane was hurtling towards their city and that the government would bail them out), no amount of money will be enough.
For some environmentalists who also oppose carbon-free nuclear energy, no amount of money will be enough. Oil companies need to go out of business, and then we can all run our cars off of windmills and flower power.
Most liberals are smart. Most environmentalists are smart. Most NOLA residents are wise. But there are a lot of loudmouthed idiots out there who are going to write in letters saying that $4.5 Billion in damages is not enough. My concern is that the legal system will get confused and believe these people are the majority.
The expected ~$25 Billion in penalties is a lot of money. Five years ago, this would have reduced the US's annual budget deficit by 5%.
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