As readers may know, I’ve been consistently disappointed by the Obama Administration: its faux progressive packaging versus its corporatist posture, its half-hearted, halting reforms which are noisily trumpeted as the real thing, its deep seated belief that public antipathy to its initiatives means it needs to work harder on selling its message, when it really […]
Read more...A $200 million market is so small as to be beneath most readers’ notice, except when its has the potential to escalate frictions between the US and China. The US has been selectively investigating markets where the Chinese are purported to be engaging in anti-competitive practices and taking action. The first salvo occurred last September, […]
Read more...From reader Bubba in Alabama: For a week I have been listening to my neighbors on the coast whine (on Facebook) about the “smell” of oil. I was delighted to get back to my kids there on Friday last, and find nothing of the sort. Of course, on Friday, the gloop hit the beach, literally. […]
Read more...As the Gulf oil leak continues to spew, albeit at a slightly lower rate now, and the American public is becoming resigned to the dreadful spectacle of continued damage to wildlife and coastlines, BP continues to act as a law unto itself. Not that that should be any surprise; the oil producer clearly believed from […]
Read more...What term do you use to describe spin about spin? Spin squared? Meta spin? Whatever you chose to call it, a classic example is in full view in a New York Times article, “Another Torrent BP Works to Stem: Its C.E.O.” If you were to believe the New York Times, which all too often appears […]
Read more...This cheery news from the SunHerald (hat tip reader Dwight Baker): The National Center for Atmospheric Research models showed Thursday that oil could enter the Gulf’s loop current, go around the tip of Florida and as far north as Cape Hatteras, N.C. According to researchers, oil could threaten East Coast beaches by early July, but […]
Read more...A sudden bout of semi-candor from BP suggests the top brass of the miscreant oil company recognized that it is in such deep doo-doo that the normal corporate PR playbook is no longer operative. Companies and governments often refuse to admit error or blame it on circumstances out of their control as a way to […]
Read more...From the Washington Post, as foretold earlier by George Washington: BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the “top kill” method had failed after studying it for three days. The method involved pumping heavy drilling mud into a crippled well 5,000 feet underwater. “We have not been able to stop the flow,” […]
Read more...So now it’s official. As many feared, the Gulf Oil oil spill is the worst the US has ever suffered. No wonder BP has been trying to keep the officialdom and scientists away from it as long as possible….. From the Washington Post (hat tip reader Marshall): As crews pumped mud at a furious rate […]
Read more...From an employee of a New Orleans community clinic, via reader Doug: I wanted to write to tell you how appreciative (though not surprised, of course) I was to see that your boss made a trip down to the Gulf to see the complete disaster that has unfolded here. We, and especially our partners in […]
Read more...The geyser of oil and less than cheery news on the Gulf oil spill continues unabated. The news updates of the day include: Reports from a Congressional briefing that suggest, as many have speculated, that the mud was removed despite heavy gas output, a warning sign, with BP admitting its workers may have made a […]
Read more...Oh, if you don’t love the smell of naplam in the morning, you will not be happy with the market actions. Per my delayed Bloomberg, Euro flirting with recent lows, at 1.2281. Gold off at $1187 an ounce. (which fits if you believe in deflation, even though gold does well in deflation, the inflationistas may […]
Read more...This is just a snippet (and this message is per the request of Lambert Strether, who has a post of his own up and trying to get further information from other Deepwater Horizon live cam bloggers or watchers): Major changes happening at BP Disaster site: http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2010/05… There have been several major eruptions of the seabed […]
Read more...It isn’t hard to see that the lack of decent information about how serious the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is is almost certainly due to obfuscation on the part of BP. The puzzling part is how BP can fantasize that it ultimately gains from this conduct, and why the Obama Administration tolerates it. The frustration […]
Read more...Ooh, this gets uglier and uglier the harder one looks at this. From the Associated Press via ABC (hat tip reader Glenn Stehle): The federal agency responsible for ensuring that an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was operating safely before it exploded last month fell well short of its own policy that inspections […]
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