Friday
Jun112010
Friday Morning Reading (BP Spill Censorship Edition)
Same deal as the last few days. I am placing all the links in comments below.
No offense intended toward our UK readers, but BP has been lying from the start about the size of the leak, and their attempts at censorship, which you will read about in the links below, are appalling.
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Click HERE to see the articles (60 total) >>
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Jun 11, 2010 at 2:02 AM
Reader Comments (68)
A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic shows a young black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy.
Art historians believe it's an extremely rare Civil War-era photograph of children who were either slaves at the time or recently emancipated.
The photo, which may have been taken in the early 1860s, was a testament to a dark part of American history, said Will Stapp, a photographic historian and founding curator of the National Portrait Gallery's photographs department at the Smithsonian Institution.
"It's a very difficult and poignant piece of American history," he said. "What you are looking at when you look at this photo are two boys who were victims of that history."
http://www.mail.com/Article.aspx/topheadlines/0/APNews/Top-Headlines/20100611/U_US-Slavery-Photo?pageid=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfu1_Scgyow&feature=related
Madmen in Authority
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/madmen-in-authority/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/10/chemical-dispersants-what_n_607769.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/10/chamber-of-commerce-says_n_607748.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.html
Jim Sensenbrenner, BP Investor And GOP Congressman, Won't Recuse Himself From Oil Spill Hearings
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/10/gulf-leak-estimate-now-cl_n_608078.html
Gulf Oil Spill: Many Federal Judges Have Links To Oil Industry
MIAMI — More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.
Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean – and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6594WF20100610?type=domesticNews
Florida (Reuters) - Florida demanded on Thursday that BP Plc put $2.5 billion in escrow to cover potential losses from the Gulf of Mexico spill, as heavier concentrations of oil begun sloshing up on its shores.
The Conversation: Press Hassled on Gulf Coast?
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http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Media/conversation-press-hassled-gulf-coast/story?id=10877263
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061003683_pf.html
By Joel Achenbach and Juliet Eilperin
Friday, June 11, 2010; A01
Pick a number: 12,600 barrels . . . 20,000 . . . 21,500 . . . 25,000 . . . 30,000 . . . 40,000 . . . 50,000. Scientists put every one of those numbers in play Thursday as they struggled to come up with a solid estimate of how much oil is gushing each day from the black geyser at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/education/11cheat.html
http://bono.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=189957
Once, while vacationing together in Bermuda, Blagojevich, Monk and Kelly were splashing in the ocean when Kelly started talking about Mayor Richard Daley, Monk recalled. Except Kelly never said the name Daley, referring to the mayor only as “the guy over there.”
Kelly came up with 1,2,3,4 nicknames so it would be harder for anyone overhearing conversations to know who was being talked about, Monk said. Sometimes he didn’t say the numbers, but just counted off with his fingers, Monk said.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/blagojevich-on-trial/2010/06/codetalkers-in-the-inner-circle.html
http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/757340,CST-NWS-watchdog24.article
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/102377-climate-change-showdown
They have offered a vote on a bill they dislike in the hopes of avoiding a loss on legislation Obama hates.
The president is threatening to veto a resolution from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would ban the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating carbon emissions.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/blagojevich-on-trial/2010/06/monk-deal-would-have-given-emil-jones-obamas-senate-seat.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/delays-denials-hit-home-buyer-tax-credit-filers-2010-05-21?pagenumber=1
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- While TaxMama is being deluged with calls and emails from taxpayers wondering where their refund went, the IRS has been busy processing over 1.8 million claims for home-buyer tax credits, according to IRS data through February.
Congressional Budget Office estimates taxpayers will lose $36 bln with AIG
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The government's actions in rescuing American International Group Inc. with a $190 billion bailout averted an economic collapse, but also continue to have a poisonous effect on the marketplace, a key government watchdog said Thursday.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/panel-us-action-in-rescuing-aig-poisoned-market-2010-06-10
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/economic-predictor-set-to-turn-negative-2010-06-10?pagenumber=1
This one is interesting...
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/alvin-greene-felony-charge-camille-mccoy
Going to be a few links on this...craziest story in a while...
Whoops! New Senate nominee Carly Fiorina (R-CA) was caught in an unfortunate open mic incident today, mocking her rival Sen. Barbara Boxer's hair, complaining about Fox's Sean Hannity and even talking about cheeseburgers she wished she'd eaten the night before.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/fiorina-open-mic-gaffe-on-boxers-hairstyle-so-yesterday.php
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/mysterious_alvin_greene_candidacy_shows_some_life.php
Oh, what could have been.
During former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial yesterday, his former chief of staff testified that in 2003, Blago's closest advisers had their eyes set on higher office for Blago -- the highest office, in fact -- thinking a presidential run for the gov might be possible in 2008.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/blago_2008_what_could_have_been.php
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) has suggested that the no-name candidate who won South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday is a "plant," and said he hopes the U.S. Attorney's office in South Carolina will investigate the situation, reports The Hill.
"There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary," Clyburn said on the liberal Bill Press radio show. "I don't know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone's plant."
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/clyburn-calls-alvin-greene-a-plant-hopes-for-investigation.php
http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-us-bp-2010-6
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/christos-kortzidi-elliniko-2010-6#ixzz0qWdSYegv
http://www.businessinsider.com/dinglepharb-responds-to-our-story-the-start-up-con-man-2010-6#ixzz0qWeIS0Bf
This one is bizarre...
European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said the 750 billion-euro ($905 billion) rescue package would be expanded if it doesn’t quell the debt crisis, becoming the first EU leader to float the idea of a larger fund.
http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-10/eu-will-expand-905-billion-rescue-package-if-more-needed-van-rompuy-says.html
An Australian hedge-fund manager filed a lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., accusing the Wall Street firm of fraudulently selling a "now notorious" financial instrument called Timberwolf.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703890904575297073191845134.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/06/the-best-case-i-can-make-for-fiscal-retrenchment
Following in the footsteps of Brad DeLong and in the spirit of generosity, it’s perhaps worth trying to reconstruct the best argument against stimulus and in favor of fiscal retrenchment that I can make. The story I would tell is that we’re seeing a bit of an ironic switcheroo in which the liberals who normally tell me markets aren’t perfect are now telling me not to worry about the US (or German or Japanese) fiscal deficit because interest rates are so low.
Three years later, with the Gulf Coast oil spill causing a public relations crisis, Hayward continues to make regrettable statements to the press. Perhaps the most cringe-inducing declaration was the one he made to reporters about how he'd like to have his life back. (He later apologized for that one.)
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/10/news/companies/tony_hayward_quotes.fortune/index.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/us/10access.html?ref=media
A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.
“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37587503/
In the US, a Treasury Department report sent to Congress shows that public debt will rise to 102 percent of gross domestic product by 2015 from 93 percent this year, to $19.6 trillion.
"We can't kick this can along the road forever," Scala said about the US debt problem. "If we continue to stimulate by issuing more debt or by printing, it's going to make it worse."
"This debt balloon has arrived. You will ultimately see it in the US," he said in a telephone interview.
Fred Malek's anti-Semitic past makes him unfit to chair a state government panel.
http://www.slate.com/id/2254653/pagenum/all/#p2
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/06/we-need-bigger-deficits-now.html
Brad Delong is a tool...
http://www.economics21.org/commentary/whither-fannie-and-freddie-proposal-reforming-housing-gses
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-10/roubini-urges-ecb-to-ease-monetary-policy-to-offset-austerity.html
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/102207-bernanke-backs-senates-fed-audit-measure
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke backed a Senate measure that would open up the Fed's books but called "destructive" a more stringent audit provision backed by the House.
The financial regulatory reform bill passed in the Senate would allow the General Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct additional audits of the central bank's financial transactions so "you'll be able to see taxpayer money is used well," Bernanke said.
"We are absolutely comfortable with that and we are quite satisfied that we have an agreement to do that," Bernanke said at a House Budget Committee hearing on the economy Wednesday.
HELEN THOMAS
INTERVIEW BY STEVE LAFRENIERE
http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n6/htdocs/helen-thomas-517.php?page=1
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/06/09/bernanke-puzzled-by-gold-rally/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/business/economy/10fed.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7815713/Barack-Obamas-attacks-on-BP-hurting-British-pensioners.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6582NC20100609
Experts forecast an active hurricane season this year. We know it could disrupt efforts to stop the spill, but how else do you think storms could impact the Gulf Coast?
We've got to stop the gusher first. Then we have to deal with the other issues. There's a lake at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico that's over 100 miles wide and at least 400 to 500 feet deep of black oil. It's just staying there. And only the lightest of that is what we're seeing hitting the shores so far. If a hurricane comes and blows this to shore, it could paint the Gulf Coast black. We should have been pumping this oil out onto other tankers weeks ago.
How do you think the U.S. government should handle this disaster?
I think the government should ask BP to leave the United States and turn its operation over to the military. Put the U.S. Navy in charge. Have all the contractors report to the Navy -- the cleanup efforts, the whole nine yards. Because as long as it's in BP's hands, they're going to spin the information as long as they can.
What do you think is in store for the future of BP?
They have about a month before they declare Chapter 11. They're going to run out of cash from lawsuits, cleanup and other expenses. One really smart thing that Obama did was about three weeks ago he forced BP CEO Tony Hayward to put in writing that BP would pay for every dollar of the cleanup. But there isn't enough money in the world to clean up the Gulf of Mexico. Once BP realizes the extent of this my guess is that they'll panic and go into Chapter 11.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/09/news/companies/simmons_gulf_oil_spill.fortune/
There's a solvency risk: the risk that we become incapable of honouring our debts in full, perhaps because we've borrowed too much in the first place or because we'll suffer some blow to our ability to generate income.
And then there's a liquidity risk, which is the risk that we run out of cash at a vital moment, often because our creditors lose confidence in our ability to pay our bills, and therefore stop lending to us just when we need their credit most.
Because liquidity or cash often dries up when lenders becoming fearful that we're on the brink of insolvency, and thus deprive us of further credit, solvency and liquidity are intimately related.
Lehman building, New YorkThe great banking crisis of 2007 to 2008 was a story of solvency fears generating a liquidity freeze - which in turn bankrupted Lehman Bros and would have killed off Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and other big banks around the world had they not been rescued by taxpayers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/06/which_governments_face_biggest.html
All along BP had full access to high definition video of the broken riser pipes but seemed to have criminally withheld the high resolution video from government convened teams of scientists tasked with figuring out how much the volcanic oil geyser is spewing out to the gulf.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail??blogid=150&entry_id=65378#ixzz0qWoaaKHA
The news — revealed by one of the members of President Obama’s Flow Rate Technical Group, a panel that previously estimated that the flow was in the region of 12,000 to 25,000 barrels a day — counter to BP’s claims that it is now capturing “the majority” of the oil and channeling it into a tanker.
Dr Ira Leifer , a researcher in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California who is a member of the technical group, said that the oil company’s operation to cut the leaking pipe and cap it with a new containment device last week may have increased the surge of oil not by 20 per cent, as BP and the White House had warned may happen, but several times over.
“How much larger I don’t know, but let’s just quote BP,” he said, referring to the 100,000 barrel rate that BP executives indicated weeks ago would be their “worst case scenario.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7146713.ece
Conventional clearinghouses make some trades less risky, but the modern economy requires more innovative solutions.
Aristotle recorded the existence of the first futures exchange in the fourth century, BC. An individual, Thales, perceived an opportunity in the olive market. He established a business of buying and selling olives for future delivery, taking advantage of the desire of farmers and merchants to hedge future prices. Aristotle presciently described this business as a “financial device which involves a principle of universal application.”
As it turns out, this was only the earliest overstatement of clearing as a panacea for market risk. The financial reform legislation may be the most recent example. Fortunately, wise interpretation of the legislation by regulators may secure Congress’s intended result.
For 2,350 years, more or less, futures clearing was used only for agricultural markets. Now, it is employed for esoteric and theoretical products like currencies, interest rates and energy. Farmers and agricultural product merchants still depend on futures. But the dominant customers are now the giants of finance and energy.
http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/06/09/nailing-down-derivatives-part-two-clearinghouses-11898/