Just being devil's advocate here:
BP has to pay 4.5 Billion dollars in fines.
They already paid all the money for the clean up and all the months following the disaster.
4.5 Billion is a lot of money to anyone except the U.S. govt. (which spent 10.6 billion dollars today and will do so again tomorrow, etc., etc.)
The world economy is on the brink.
Oil companies are a huge part of the equation when it comes to the economy.
1. Is it economically a good idea to fine them?
2. If (as many here are calling for) they were fined even more massively...will it reverse the recent drop in oil prices that are bringing down gas prices over the news that the U.S. can now be the number one oil producer in the world?
Just asking.
That fine won't even cover HALF of what the U.S. federal govt. will spend today. But is it possible that it could hurt the world economy?
I'm thinking that if someone took that much of my money for the year all at once...(the fine is by the barrel and may actually end up being more than 21 billion dollars) it would cripple me.
Again, just being devil's advocate here and asking some economic questions.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/b...plc/index.html