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FLASH: Futures Drop on a German Paper Headline That Germany is Not Ruling Out Canceling This Weekends Debt Solution Meeting
Lunch Break: Charlie Bag of Doughnuts Takes His Shot at #OWS
While there may be some Marxist ans Socialistic tendencies milling about the real question is why has it come to this and what can be done to make our society even better than it is….
Comments »Graphic Info Chart Porn For #OWS
Bank Woes Continue As Regulation Seeks to Crack Down on Commodity Speculation
Banks say this is a feeble attempt to control soaring commodity prices.
Others say this regulation will help to keep a free market system free.
Comments »There is Nothing to Fear, But Reality Itself
Apparently fear is creating a disconnect from reality according this article. But is fear causing a global slowdown or is reality plotting its course ?
People do not riot around the world because of fear; rather their revolt is a result of pent up frustration and tougher living conditions.
Comments »We Are Getting Ready to Terrify Washington, D.C.
Cheering Economic Terrorism- SEIU Getting Ready To Terrify DC: Steven Lerner At SEIU Meeting Outlines Rules To Creating a Crisis: We want their kids to hate them, name enemies like Glenn Beck, shut down bridges, long occupations, recruit Tea Party.
This was from September 22nd. Yet the media still wants you to believe this is grassroots, and NOT part of the Obama re-election strategy.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKqHL8eJZO8 603 500] Comments »FLASH: Dow Jones News Reports the Guardian Piece and the # $2 Trillion is completely wrong, incorrect, false…did you buy my calls ?
Morgan Stanley Out With a Nifty Fifty List That Could Out Perform Markets
Anadarko settles with BP for Macondo disaster
Comments »LONDON (AP) — Anadarko Petroleum Co. has agreed to pay $4 billion to BP PLC as part of a settlement related to last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, adding weight to BP’s contention that it was not solely responsible for the disaster.
BP said Monday that Anadarko’s payment will form part of the British company’s $20 billion trust fund, which has paid out $7 billion so far to settle claims from individuals and businesses. Eleven workers were killed when the Deepwater Horizon rig at the Macondo well exploded off Louisiana on April 20, 2010, causing the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
BP has now reached settlements with both of its partners in the Macondo well.
However, it is still embroiled in lawsuits and countersuits with Transocean Ltd., operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and Halliburton Co., which was responsible for cementing the well. The suits are scheduled to go to trial in New Orleans in February.
BP also faces the prospect of fines in the tens of billions of dollars.
The market cheered the Anadarko agreements, pushing BP shares 4 percent higher at 433 pence in early afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange.
“The acceptance of partial liability by Anadarko further reduces the likelihood of punitive damages against BP,” Jonathan Jackson, head of equities at Killik & Co.
“If the group is not found grossly negligent, fines relating to the incident would be a basic amount of $1,100 per barrel, as opposed to $4,300 per barrel if found guilty, Jackson said, adding that the not-guilty verdict would still cost the company $15.7 billion.
BP has made provisions for up to $42 billion in costs from the blowout, and it has embarked on raising $30 billion by selling assets.
Anadarko, based in The Woodlands, Texas, is handing over its 25 percent stake in the well to BP as part of the settlement.
The agreement also gives Anadarko a potential share in funds which BP recovers from third parties or insurance. If BP’s total recovery exceeds $1.5 billion, Anadarko would get 12.5 percent of the excess, or up to $1 billion, BP said.
“This settlement agreement with BP is the right action for our stakeholders, as it removes significant uncertainty regarding future liabilities and associated risks,” said Jim Hackett, chairman and CEO of Anadarko.
“This settlement represents a positive resolution of a significant uncertainty and it resolves the issues among all the leaseholders of the Macondo well,” said BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley.
“There is clear progress with parties stepping forward to meet their obligations and help fund the economic and environmental restoration of the Gulf,” Dudley said. “It’s time for the contractors, including Transocean and Halliburton, to do the same.”
In May, BP announced a settlement with the other partner in the well, MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC, which owned 10 percent it. That company agreed to pay BP $1 billion.
Weatherford International Inc., a contractor based in Switzerland, also agreed in June to pay $75 million to the trust fund to settle claims between it and BP. Weatherford manufactured the float collar, designed to help contain cement, used in the blown-out well.
U.S. regulators last week cited BP PLC, Transocean Lld. and Halliburton for alleged safety and environmental violations stemming from last year’s rig explosion and massive Gulf oil spill.
The companies were given 60 days to appeal the citations issued by the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
HUSSMAN: The Recession Is Still Coming, And The Europe Mess Has Barely Gotten Started
Merkel still insists on Financial Transaction Tax
TRUE STORY: Pappy George Bush Chose Dan Quayle Over Clint Eastwood as VP
George H.W. Bush, trailing Democrat Michael Dukakis in the heat of the 1988 presidential campaign, briefly but seriously considered Hollywood renaissance man Clint Eastwood to be his running mate, a former Bush aide says.
The revelation comes from more than 350 hours of audio interviews with 50 senior officials from the George H.W. Bush administration released today by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and Bush Presidential Library Foundation. The decade-long oral history project documents the life and times of the 41st presidency.
“When we were way behind. Honestly, [Eastwood] was suggested in not an altogether unserious – Well, he was a mayor. He was a Republican mayor,” former Bush campaign chairman and Secretary of State James Baker said.
Eastwood served one term as mayor of the conservative ocean side community Carmel, Calif., from 1986-1988.
AUDIO: James Baker describes consideration of Clint Eastwood
“Anyway, it was shot down pretty quick. But we were looking at an 18-point deficit,” Baker said, suggesting the campaign was looking for a boost from its VP choice. Bush, who also considered Sen. Dan Quayle, R-Ind.; Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.; Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo.; and Rep. Jack Kemp, R-N.Y., ultimately settled on Quayle.
Quayle was “maybe not the most qualified, but he brings other attributes that are extraordinarily important,” Baker said of his initial reaction to Bush’s choice.
The interviews, conducted by a panel of university scholars between 1999 and 2011, paint an intimate and detailed portrait of Bush and his team as they navigated the 1988 election campaign and transition to the White House, legislative affairs, two Supreme Court appointments and later a series of foreign crises, including the first Gulf War.
Some additional highlights from the tapes:
PANCAKES & PRESIDENTIAL DAILY BRIEFING. The interviews reveal a president who took a serious and active approach to national security and defense, regularly involving himself in the minutiae of the issues, even over breakfast. Aides describe Bush as a religious reader and analyzer of the presidential daily briefing. “On the Saturday before the coup in the Soviet Union [in 1990] we were in Kennebunkport, and the president and I were sitting on the deck of his house at Walker’s Point, looking out over the Atlantic and eating pancakes and he was reading the briefing,” said former CIA director and Bush national security advisor Robert Gates, “and the last item, the article in the briefing was CIA’s view that there was very likely to be a coup attempt… I’ll never forget the president turning to me and chewing on his pancakes and saying, “Should I take this seriously?” And I said, “yes, and here’s why.”
SETTING POLICY ON THE FLY. On at least two major foreign policy positions, Bush made impactful public pronouncements without consulting with his staff ahead of time. Gates recalls the first time U.S. support forGerman reunification was articulated came in an off-the-cuff comment by Bush at a Helena, Mont., press conference in 1989. “I called [National Security Adviser] Brent [Scowcroft] right after that and said, ‘Brent, we now have a policy on German reunification.’ He said, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘We’re for it.’ He said, ‘Who says so?’ I said, ‘The President.’ He said, ‘Oh, shit.’”
After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991, Bush famously drew a line in the sand and said, “This shall not stand.” Vice President Dan Quayle says that comment came out of the blue, ahead of a full U.S. assessment of the situation to determine whether Saddam Hussein might withdraw. “He came into the Oval Office first, and I was there… He said, ‘How’d I do?’ and we said, ‘Oh, good.’ Brent [Scowcroft] said, ‘Where’d you get that ‘this will not stand’?” He said, ‘That’s mine.’ ‘Well, yes, but, where’d you get it?’ He said, ‘Well, that’s what I feel.’… Not that he was wrong in doing it, but he just caught everybody off guard a little bit because it was so definite and so dramatic.”
TAPPING CLARENCE THOMAS. Bush famously called Thomas, his second pick for the Supreme Court, “the best qualified person” when nominating him to the bench. But Bush administration Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, who says he did a “double take” at the characterization, clarifies that what Bush really meant “was that this was the best qualified African-American candidate we could find… He desperately wanted to make an appointment of an African-American. But he wasn’t going to appoint a Democrat…. So, that’s the best – he was saying it’s the best we can do.”
TENNIS SHORTS & THE OVAL OFFICE: Bush revered the Oval Office so much so that he refused to wear anything but a coat and tie in the room. On one occasion, aide Barbara Kilberg says she met Bush at the tennis court and wanted to walk to the Oval, but he insisted upon changing clothes first. “He said, ‘where are you going?’ and I said, ‘I’m going to your office.’ ‘No, no,’ he said, ‘I’m in tennis shorts.’ I said, ‘So?’ He said, ‘No, just wait, I’ll be back.’ So he went into the residence, got dressed, put on a coat and tie, walked into the Oval Office, handed me the paper and left. But he would not go into that office in tennis togs. He didn’t believe that was appropriate.”
AUDIO: Barbara Kilberg describes Bush reverence for Oval Office
REGRETS OVER ‘NO NEW TAXES’ PLEDGE: Legislative Affairs director Fred McClure says Bush “didn’t do a very good job” communicating why it was necessary to suspend his famous “no new taxes” pledge. “I think it may have contributed to what ultimately happened in the election in 1992, but I don’t think it was a defining moment,” McClure says. “I think in retrospect, the defining moment for him, at least from a policy standpoint, was the whole Persian Gulf thing.”
WATCH GLANCE IN ’92 DEBATES: When Bush famously glanced down at his watch during the 1992 debates, his critics slammed him for appearing restless, agitated and eager to get off the stage. But Phillip Brady, assistant staff secretary, explains that Bush was really sending a signal to moderator Carole Simpson about a long-winded Ross Perot. “If you watch the tape, you’ll see he looked at her then his watch suggesting clearly, ‘Hey, Perot’s time is up’ – meaning he’s filibustering,” which is exactly what Simpson forbid before the candidates took the stage.
Comments »Europe’s Plan to Have Private Capital Injections Into Banks is Already Not Working
Shareholders and other private parties a highly skeptical of putting any more money into euro zone banks…
Comments »FLASH: FT Reports EU Banks May Sell Assets vs Recapitalization
Netflix, NFLX, Retracts Decision to Separate Units
Latest Rig Count Figures…
US rig counts reverse last week’s drop. Up 22 this week. Still up 20% YoY.
International sees a drop of -9. Up 5% YoY.
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