Tag: gulf spill

BP Cleared By Presidential Inquiry

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, ethics, Government Failure, Philosophy of Business, White Collar Crime

lol

Right! The President covered for the oil company for months. They restricted press access to the affected waters. The declined the recommendations of their own scientists. They underestimated the amount of oil leaking from the disaster.

We already know that BP was drilling deeper than they were supposed to. We know they had accumulated an awesome number of violations of regulations and had violated the regulations on a regular basis. We know their conduct in the 2002 gas explosion and their maintenance of the Alaska pipeline were disastrous. We know that they had good reason to believe their cement was substandard, this cement being one of the causes of the incident.

In short, the White House has a strong interest in giving British Petroleum a clean bill of health.

We also know that considering BP’s conduct that such a clean bill of health is not credible.

I am far more interested in the outcome of the lawsuits by the states and individuals harmed by this disaster.

The tragedy is that these findings may not be public for at least seven years. By that time, the heat on the government and that corporation will have long dissipated.

Whatever, you may think of the finding, in the long term it will be effective in blunting criticism and, more important, buying time.

Cynicism is merited.

James Pilant

Vultures Circle Oil Spill!

On By southwerkIn business ethics, Capitalism, Government Failure

An article in the Business Insider explains that at least one investment firm believes that it’s time to invest in the discounted property along the Gulf. The investment group, Broyhill Asset Management, is pushing an investment in the St. Joe Company. Broyhill has a 31 page presentation extolling the virtues of this company and its current holdings along the gulf coast.

But this will just be the first of a flood of companies that will move in on the real estate bonanza that the gulf coast will become.

Naomi Klein explained in The Shock Doctrine how disasters can be made to profit economic elites. Here is a developing project. First, there will be requests for “tax free development zones.” Then there will be actual grants of federal, state, county and city money to encourage development. The properties along hundreds of miles of coastline devastated and devalued by the oil spill can be bought up for a song. And a happy tune it will be, as thousands of businesses escape paying taxes to support roads, schools, etc. and roam to the gulf where cheap land, no taxes and a subservient government desperate for jobs will do virtually anything to make them happy.

But think about the other possibilities. You can get the government to guarantee loans, waive wage and hour laws, postpone or do without environmental impact studies, and the list of goodies a company can get goes on and on.

And during all this, the people whose livelihoods and homes were destroyed or devalued will simply be setup for the chopping block. The government that should have protected them and aided them will be a conscious, skillful, relentless aid to the companies buying them out and replacing them.

Well, the vultures are circling. They are expecting meat on the table and plenty of it.

James Pilant

P.S. I want to thank Sue White who brought this to my attention. jp