The external costs of drilling in deep waters exceeds the net worth of the oil industry.
A Pogo Moment: Before you get too wound up in demonizing BP, remember that they are doing the best they can to feed your habit. If you were not an addict, they would not be out in the Gulf drilling holes in the seabed.
Dr's R Us: The experiments with medically supervised and assisted waterboarding concluded that torture doesn't work except to extract false confessions, endanger the national security, and revolt the electorate. But it does work to squash dissent.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell: BP is now capturing at least twice as much oil as is leaking from the well. So they say. My simple minded question is this: If BP intended to produce 100,000 plus barrels of oil a day from this well using the reservoir’s natural pressure, why aren’t 100,000 bpd or more spewing out now?
No Evil: Even before Helen Thomas was shuttled off to Buffalo we all knew that no criticism of Israel would be permitted. Remember, if it were not for Israel, where would the US learn all the self-defeating things we keep doing in the Middle East?
True Lies: Don't bother with the umbrella, Barry Ritholz assures us there'll be no 'double dip' because (1) Economists as a group are generally wrong and the group is predicting one. (b) Double dip recessions are rather rare. (c) A recovery hasn't reversed itself this quickly before. So don't worry. There are no Black Sawns; economist Ritholz said so. But in 1930 no one knew what lay ahead, either.
Because... US Banks have been swapping investments in each other and carrying these “investments” at 100% as part of their capital, even though they, you and I, and the regulators know that's an exaggeration. The paper is mostly dreck, but the banks say if they can't keep playing 'pretend' they'll no longer be well capitalized. Think on that one for a while and get back to me.
He Said, He Said: Saudi Aramco has reasserted its claim that there are 260 billion barrels of oil reserves hidden under the desert sands. Others, citing such things as the miraculous overnight jump in reserves and forty years of pumping that was matched with unreported replenishment, say that they've got less that 65 billion barrels remaining.
Go Yodel: The Swiss Federation's Lower House declined to go along with the IRS's demand for an open books policy. What they said was, “Go away, boy, y'bother me.”
Ready or Not: The G20 declared that “those countries with serious fiscal challenges need to accelerate the pace of consolidation, reduce their deficits in 2010 and strengthen their fiscal institutions.” The ECB stressed the importance of feeding the fat cats shoring up investor confidence. In plain terms, the banks want the peons to pass the cash, suffer in silence.
A Friend In Need: It is official. The rest of the world assumes the economy can pick up were we left off in 2006, with the US consumer taking up all the slack. No one thought to check with the US consumer.
Spade is Spade: Turns out that “Green Consumerism” is consumerism. The green part being mostly myth. Oxymorons.
Mr. Grump: Roughly 1.1 million workers have given up hope of finding employment. Gross domestic product is growing at only half of the 7% to 8% pace that typically has been seen after past deep recessions. Companies hiring for entry-level or administrative spots with pay that would normally range from $40,000 to $50,000 have been offering workers $28,000. Over 3.5 million homes nationally will go into foreclosure this year. Nine percent of CFOs said they anticipate staff reductions. More than 40 million Americans are on food stamps. And that was Michael's message for the day.
Porn O'Graph: Is it global warming or just a long hot flash?
2 comments:
I appreciate the Pogo reference, presumably to "We have met the enemy and it is us" or something like that.
Wouldn't it be nice if the younger generation, you know the ones inheriting this mess, would take some time off from texting to get a little concerned ?
RE: He Said, He Said Right. But to anyone paying attention it's pretty clear Aramco can't "ramp-up" production at will as they used to (maybe still do) claim AND they still refuse any sort of serious scrutiny of their evidence supporting reported reserves. The original, probably wildly inflated, reserve numbers were about positioning themselves for OPEC production quotas. So what's the game this time?
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