I would say that BP's CEO made an off comment that was inappropriate, however, I know that I am not a perfect individual and have mispoke under stressful challenging situations. Who is it for me to judge the man when I have mis-spoken many times in my life? The fact is that the cameras are on the guy every time he steps into the fresh air and he is being placed under a very challenging and stressful situation. His comments were inappropriate, but we should not pass judgement unless we can do better ourselves under the same circumstances. This is not a time to point fingers, judge, be critical of someone else's remarks or place blame/fault. This is a time to focus all energy on fixing the well and the clean-up. When the well is fixed and clean-up well under way, then we can sit back and be critical of some words. Like I said, men oftentimes say the wrong things and especially so when placed under stress or when cameras are shoved in their faces. Just let those comments go and focus on the priorities at hand. Hey, he said he wanted his personal life back...at least he did not say that the Jews should go back to Germany and to get the hell out of Palestine. There are a lot worse things that he could have said, but all he said was that he wanted to get back to normal...thats how I read it and its not something to be offended at.
Well the difference is your not a running a multibillion dollar business where every word is analyzed by the public. I don't know how you can compare a normal person to a someone who lives in the public spotlight. Hayward should know the position he's in, and be very careful of what he says. Can you imagine what would happen to our markets if Bernanke had a slip up and said "we're fucked." Would you condone that as well, cuz you said something inappropriate before?
We are already fucked. Because of all the emotion and anger, they are going to move every rig out of the Gulf and they will go to places like Venezuela and other hostile places in the world. Once they are redeployed, then there is no way...short of military action...we will ever see them again. You cant just flip a switch on these things. Do you have any idea how long it takes to build one of these things? I do and they cant be built on the fly. It takes years. There goes some 60,000 jobs out the window at least. It will turn some places into ghost towns. Meanwhile, Venezuela and China will get those rigs. In fact, the main reason CEO was going up today was because they are using some of those rigs to drill off the coast of Florida. Thats right, China is drilling deepwater off the coast of Florida. Is that what you want to happen? 60,000 people out of work...maybe a few hundred thousand Americans effected negatively and no more oil rigs in the Gulf...they all went to hostile nations. Is that what you wanted with all your anger and emotion? ...and yes its going to effect you with 5 dollar a gallon gasoline and it will effect your neigbhors. Your not immune. http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/15/news/economy/big_oil_goes_to_washington/index.htm?hpt=T1 "Both Exxon and Chevron's CEOs said they would most likely redeploy their deepwater rigs and personnel to other places in the world if not allowed to drill off U.S. shores." "We would redirect human resources to other parts of the world where we're allowed to work," Exxon's Tillerson said. "This stuff is too expensive to just let sit around."
Looks like BP is going to have to raise about 50 billion and there will probably be serious dilution to this stock. I dont think it will be able to stay in business. I read somewhere the 9/11 fund paid out about 7 billion dollars in damages. The current BP fund is about 20 billion and they may need another 50 billion. Anyone can walk into a Federal courthouse, throw down $450 and file a lawsuit with or without an attorney. They even have a "Pro Se" office to assist non-represented litigants. So the owner of a seafood restaurant in Las Vegas could sue BP because their business was disrupted simply by filing a lawsuit at the charge of $450. Since 9/11, rewards on claims have grown astronomically. I think this is it for BP.
Actually Whitney Tilson of T2, says the exact opposite. People speculated that litigation would kill Merck in 2004 because of Vioxx, but in fact they settled most lawsuits for much smaller than anticipated because these days the courts are very business-friendly. "Based on speculation that Merckâs liability could be as high as $50 billion, the stock tanked from $45 to $26 in less than two months in late 2004. [snip] So what happened to Merck? It has settled nearly all of the claims for around $5 billion, has won nearly all of the cases that reached juries (with relatively small awards in the losses), and the stock rallied to over $60 in the subsequent three years." http://www.zerohedge.com/article/whitney-tilsons-bull-case-bp
I'm sorry, I have retailstopfailure on ignore but I saw this quoted. I think it's hilariously appropriate that of all the clowns on the site, it would be this teenage investing phenom who would be arguing that we shouldn't hold people to what they say. After all the idiotic things he's posted here, it's no surprise that he's taking that position. "Men oftentimes say the wrong things". I just loved that one. Like every call you've made here and every well-respected member (and actual trader, as opposed to you) you've dissed? Hayward probably knows a bit about the oil business, but he doesn't have any common sense about the media. End of story. He has repeatedly shown that he has no grasp on how to be the public face of the company in a situation like this. Please remember that he is being advised on an hour by hour basis as to what to say next and what story to be telling. He obviously doesn't have the savvy to avoid these ridiculous gaffes. He will, however, have a pension of $16 MM. __________________________ EDIT: !!!! I couldn't make this up if I tried!! I posted, and lo and behold, I see the post above which appeared while I was typing, in which retailstopfailure sticks his teenage foot in his mouth yet again!! Don't you get sick of being totally and utterly wrong every time you open your mouth? By now you know that you're always wrong, since the proof is in your post history. At some point, do you not wonder 'Hmmm, I wonder why I'm always wrong?'
Tradernik, The most laughable part about your post is where you state there are "well respected traders" on Elitetrader. Since when did you start respecting some nameless faceless handles on a message board? PT Barnum was right, there is a sucker born every minute. You can go ahead and hand your money over to those "well respected" traders. They are here to try to collect it from people like you. In reference to BP, some of you guys are making the same old mistakes that you make again and again. You are trying to bottom pick a downtrending stock. Since when did you become an "expert" on the oil and gas industry? You are too lazy to go out and get a real job let alone work on a rig. I see the ES is up 17 points blasting off while BP is set to open in the red which is quite telling. Why not buy an uptrending stock with much better fundamentals like LVS? I will tell you why you dont bring up stocks like that. You see those stocks as "too high" and have topped. My advice to you Tradernik...stop respecting strangers on messageboards and stop buying downtrending stocks with obviously bad fundamentals. I stand by my call. BP is a buy at 5 bucks if it does not go out of business first.