"BP brought another $25 million to Florida on Tuesday, [June 8, 2010,] but instead of a thank you they got a lot more criticism." Brent Kallestad, "Florida Politicians Demand More, Faster Claims Monies From BP" (Insurance Journal Online, Thursday, June 10, 2010).
Those ungrateful "Florida politicians". What were they thinking? Not grateful for a disaster that has caused BP to try to purchase absolution at a lower price than Florida Juries might otherwise award and assess in Compensatory and Punitive Damages? Not sufficiently thankful for potential elimination of Florida's Number One Industry -- Tourism -- on the Florida Panhandle Beaches, and perhaps at other Florida locations to come depending on where BP's oil plumes land?
Not sufficiently grateful, indeed. BP is trying to buy their way out of a potentially much higher Judgment. And keep much of the Billions it has made as a result of its flawed business model which clearly requires other people to shoulder much or all of the risk of this deepwater drilling fiasco, while BP receives Billions of Dollars in profits that result. Grateful? Get real.
This being business, investors have more or less naturally taken a business view of BP's exposure. BP's stock is trading today for an amount that is less than the amount by which the share price has fallen in the past two months: Down $33.30 per share from some $62.50 a share in mid-April, to $29.20 a share at the close on Wednesday, June 9, 2010.
At the same time, BP's costs of doing business are increasing in many ways in addition to the obvious prospects of liability for cleanup costs, economic damages, other Compensatory Damages, and Punitive Damages: "The annual cost to insure $10 million in BP bonds rose by $10,600 to $36,800," according to a report published in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, June 10, 2010. See Guy Chazan and Stephen Power, "U.S. Ramps Up Tab On BP" p. A1, col. 3 (Wall Street Journal, Thursday, June 10, 2010).
Postscript Sunday, June 13, 2010 to the above post which was originally published here on Friday, June 11, 2010:
The Florida perspective on the continuing BP disaster of death and destruction is also explored in an informative post on "Venture Blog" on Monday, June 7, 2010, written by Robert Trigaux, "Will BP Oil Ruin Florida Coastline Because of Inadequate Resources to Clean Up the Mess?"
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