The New York Times: BP's Exposure To Criminal Liability
The clowns who jacked BP's shares up ten percent after the company "settled" for some initial payment of $20 billion with the White House are playing with fire. The White House is not the rule of law. There are still potentially enormous economic, civil and criminal claims against the company and employees. Some have remarked as of yesterday that BP's liability could be $60 billion. This is an easily manageable amount over some period of years but I think its liability could literally be many times that based on current law. eg, The Clean Water Act alone can assess damages of $4,300 per barrel of oil spilled. That does not include any criminal, civil or economic damages assessed in the courts.
Just as in Enron, Washington is trying to shield BP from liability. As an example, apparently White House politicians might have substantially adjusted .... downward .... government scientist estimates on the flow rate of the spill during the first weeks of the crisis. This could very well have been an attempt to act on BP's behalf to limit damages under the Clean Water Act. Why else would politicians possibly tamper with scientific estimates? I'm glad to see our Washington politicians have been boning up on the science of fluid dynamics and are better informed than its own scientists. This was a favorite ploy of the Bush White House as it tried to dumb down climate data coming from a NASA scientist. Our public servants, including its scientists, are often caught in the manipulative crosswinds of smarmy politicians who have an agenda that has little to do with truth.
Ultimately many politicians would sell their country into prostitution if it would gain them something. Enron was sacrificed because its trail of fraud led right to Wall Street and Washington. So, eventually the company was thrown under the bus as politicians sought to distance themselves from the massive fraud that unraveling in the public view at Enron. Don't be surprised to see the same dynamics develop with BP as more and more information leaks out. BP, unlike Enron, is a legitimate company whose scientific and human assets in the energy business are a jewel but if negligence is uncovered, and it is hard to deny it exists with heretofore released documents and statements, and it is tracked back to Washington politicians who dismantled regulations for political favors, all bets are off. Especially, if this oil leak is not eventually contained.
In other words, I believe BP is in very, very serious trouble. Too big to fail is not just a financial problem. In fact, a point missed in the banking mess is that too big to fail banks are primarily too big because monopoly multi-national corporations need too big to fail banks to service them. All because our government did not and will not enforce the Sherman Act and our anti-trust regulations. The rule of law means nothing to politicians across a wide array of topics when it means they have a chance to sell their country into prostitution.
Kill corporate personhood. It is a source of massive fraud, corruption, distortion of the rule of law and the destruction of democracy. Free markets created Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BP, Monsanto, Cargill and other destructive prison cells for the American economy. Free markets is a mythology where those with the deepest pockets write the law, win the game and take all of the spoils regardless of the consequences. Free markets is a mythology where the last man standing wins the neoliberal race to the bottom of the economic barrel and We the People suffer.
Just as in Enron, Washington is trying to shield BP from liability. As an example, apparently White House politicians might have substantially adjusted .... downward .... government scientist estimates on the flow rate of the spill during the first weeks of the crisis. This could very well have been an attempt to act on BP's behalf to limit damages under the Clean Water Act. Why else would politicians possibly tamper with scientific estimates? I'm glad to see our Washington politicians have been boning up on the science of fluid dynamics and are better informed than its own scientists. This was a favorite ploy of the Bush White House as it tried to dumb down climate data coming from a NASA scientist. Our public servants, including its scientists, are often caught in the manipulative crosswinds of smarmy politicians who have an agenda that has little to do with truth.
Ultimately many politicians would sell their country into prostitution if it would gain them something. Enron was sacrificed because its trail of fraud led right to Wall Street and Washington. So, eventually the company was thrown under the bus as politicians sought to distance themselves from the massive fraud that unraveling in the public view at Enron. Don't be surprised to see the same dynamics develop with BP as more and more information leaks out. BP, unlike Enron, is a legitimate company whose scientific and human assets in the energy business are a jewel but if negligence is uncovered, and it is hard to deny it exists with heretofore released documents and statements, and it is tracked back to Washington politicians who dismantled regulations for political favors, all bets are off. Especially, if this oil leak is not eventually contained.
In other words, I believe BP is in very, very serious trouble. Too big to fail is not just a financial problem. In fact, a point missed in the banking mess is that too big to fail banks are primarily too big because monopoly multi-national corporations need too big to fail banks to service them. All because our government did not and will not enforce the Sherman Act and our anti-trust regulations. The rule of law means nothing to politicians across a wide array of topics when it means they have a chance to sell their country into prostitution.
Kill corporate personhood. It is a source of massive fraud, corruption, distortion of the rule of law and the destruction of democracy. Free markets created Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BP, Monsanto, Cargill and other destructive prison cells for the American economy. Free markets is a mythology where those with the deepest pockets write the law, win the game and take all of the spoils regardless of the consequences. Free markets is a mythology where the last man standing wins the neoliberal race to the bottom of the economic barrel and We the People suffer.
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