Barack Obama's attacks on BP hurting British pensioners

[FarCenter]

Barack Obama has been accused of holding "his boot on the throat" of British pensioners after his attacks on BP were blamed for wiping billions off the company's value.

By Louise Armitstead and Myra Butterworth
Published: 10:12PM BST 09 Jun 2010

City investors said the president was jeopardising the pensions of millions with his "excessive" criticism of the energy company following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Before the accident on April 20, BP was Britain's biggest company, with a stock market value of £122 billion. Since then, £49 billion has been wiped off its value.

On Wednesday, BP's share price fell a further 17.35p to 391.55p – representing a 40 per cent drop on the 655p price of a share two months ago.

Experts have said that the clean-up costs of the oil spill will run to between £10 billion and £20 billion but the biggest cost to the company is from investors dumping stock for fear of BP being further punished by the US Government.

Those fears have been heightened by Mr Obama's increasingly aggressive rhetoric towards BP, which some investors see as an attempt to deflect criticism of his own handling of the crisis. Last month, a White House spokesman said the President's job was to keep his "boot on the throat" of the company.

In the past week, Mr Obama, who insists on referring to BP by its former name British Petroleum, has suggested that its chief executive, Tony Hayward, would have been sacked if he worked for him.

BP's position at the top of the London Stock Exchange and its previous reliability have made it a bedrock
of almost every pension fund in the country, meaning its value is crucial to millions of workers. The firm's dividend payments, which amount to more than £7 billion a year, account for £1 in every £6 paid out in dividends to British pension pots.

<SNIP>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7815713/Barack-Obamas-attacks-on-BP-hurting-British-pensioners.html

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The Tory's may decide that throwing their lot in with the EU is a better bet than continuing the "special relationship".

[Zoeisright]

1. Uh huh. It's the CRITICISM of BP that's doing this.

BP itself has done NOTHING at all wrong. Nope. Nuh uh.

Christ on a crutch.

:sarcasm:

[Hannah Bell]

16. Christ on a crutch indeed. BP is expected to distribute $10 billion in dividends this year.

It's paying nearly double the percent dividends of any other oil company.

[TexasObserver]

2. Anyone holding BP stock for any purpose is crazy.

BP stock has lost over half its value since this thing started. Any fund that left pensioners in BP stock committed negligence.

[AllentownJake]

14. Welcome to 2010

Where negligence is someone elses fault. Actually welcome to the period of 1980 to 2010. It has just gotten ridiculous at this point.

[KharmaTrain]

17. Daytraders and Bottom Feeders Are Having A Field Day...

So, the market is clairvoyant? They knew after the blow out that President Obama would "kick" Tiny Tony's ass and that's what sent BP stock plummeting? Damn, I thought it was due to their greed and negligence that led to the blow out.

While the oil gushes, BP's price will bleed as well...as long as the company's name is mud, the only investors interested in their stock are playing its dead cat bounces.

As we've seen with the "restrutured" bankruptcies from our own financial collapse, the pensioners will be the first to lose it all, if BP goes Chapter 11 or some form of bankruptcy to protect assets and asses (which I'm starting to think could happen) the big fish will swim away, the little ones will suck oil.

[AllentownJake]

18. Of course

but blaming the President and Americans for them losing money is easier than explaining to them the mangement of your Pension fund is a crook and so was the management of BP.

At most they should only be exposed to a 3% loss even if all of BP goes bankrupt. Anything higher than that shows criminal negligence by the fund manager who probably has collected millions (probably in the 100s over time) in fees to manage money poorly.

Which shoots a hole in the argument that they need millions of dollars in fees otherwise they will manage someone elses money.

Thus dies capitalism. Fuck, get Bernake on the phone, we need a bailout for BP RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!!

[KharmaTrain]

20. Ya Don't Think The Brits Wouldn't Bail Them Out...

and probably with our money.

I just heard BP's stock price is off 50% from it's one year high; lost 95 billion in value. The shame is this is only numbers...it's not affecting Tiny Tony's check or the expected large dividend payout. While we're concerned about the destruction of the Gulf, all these scumbags are worried about are their jobs and assets. Divert attention away from the real negligence.

You're spot on about fund managers...and my bets are most have already bailed. It's those who don't have a manager or are in a massive fund and not managing it (or have the ability to) that will end up screwed.

Cheers...

[AllentownJake]

21. The large divident payout is incentive for not doing a total sell off

Tony isn't dumb. Cut the dividend and his share prices and networth drop to nothing overnight. Almost an admission you are going down.

Tony and the E-suite have a lot of wealth tied up in their firm surviving. They sell anything right now, the financial media will rip them to shreds. Every blog and investigative financial journalist in the world is watching the insider reports to see any BP sale by insiders to throw the shorts out there. They aren't dumb, they realize it.

The Brits are broke. They bailout BP it is with printed money and they will compete with the Euro on whose currency can reach parity with the dollar first. London is even dumber than Manhattan believe it or not. With whose money are they bailing anyone out, they've partially nationalized most of their big banks because if they didn't they would be in recievership even with fucking with the accounting rules.

Oh the Pension fund managers should be in handcuffs. If your fund is in jeopardy because of one company you were chasing appreciation way too much and frankly were criminally negligent with other people's money while stealing fees from them. The politicians are in trouble because the large public fund managers are appointed by them, and they pick political supporters over competence.

What was I saying about the death of capitalism.

[KharmaTrain]

23. The Death of Crony Capitalism

But we're not there yet...there's a lot more pain to come before there's a loud enough public outrage to break those tight bonds between the politicians and their big money backers. We just saw in Arkansas how their money still has pull...and you know that there's a lot of IOU's being paid off.

The Brits have been broke for decades...not surprised as the strength of the Euro was inflated by a real estate bubble on that side of the Atlantic and hedging against the dollar. I'm still expecting Bernake to come rushing to the rescue of the EU...it'll be our money propping up a world economy drowning in debt. So at least we'll be sharing the misery...

As any good investor knows, put all your eggs in one basket and you deserve to get burned. The problem with many funds are the investors are far removed from what's in their portfolio or even who to call to find out. All they see are a monthly or quarterly statement. The 80s myth that the market is the true way to riches has turned into a nightmare for many...seeing years of gains (on paper) wiped out. But I still don't sense outrage...more like resignation.

[AllentownJake]

24. Bernake isn't going to do much for the EU

They laughed at Geithner over taking on more debt for stimulus spending at the G20 and the crisis over there is chasing investors into T-bills making them cheap. Plus they are still pissed at Merkel's unilateral action 2 weeks ago. Appears the Swiss are the ones trying to prop up the Euro right now.

He also burned a lot of the dollar shorts.

If Ben goes after anyone it is the Gold bugs.

Lincoln is going to lose in the general, all the money that went to defeat Halter is going to her opponent.

The party is about to learn about what a strange mistress Wall Street is.

[hobbit709]

3. No responsibility on the part of BP for this disaster evidently.

Oh yeah blame everybody but the people who caused this mess-how Republican.

[scarletwoman]

4. Ah, the Torygraph. Always so worried about the working class.

:eyes:

[CountAllVotes]

5. too bad

greedy bastards investing in this and they cry and lose.

Tough fuggin sh*t. :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:



British Petroleum FUCK YOU!

:kick:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. Nice try

shouldn't rely on private industry

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Beg to differ. BP took the pounds of its pensioners' nest eggs with its recklessness.

[wordpix]

9. +1 ---pensioners should not rely on dirty industries for their nest eggs

These industries make money and send dividends based on exploitation of natural resources and despoiling the planet. The very nature of BigOil industries is dirty, dangerous and can result in environmental disasters in which people can get killed or hurt, physically and economically.

So it happened. That's O's fault?

[johnaries]

8. They SHOULD be pissed. At BP.

As soon as this happened they should have called their pension fund manager and demanded their investments be moved from BP. Punish the criminal, not the victim.

[Angry Dragon]

10. Then perhaps the pension funds need to sue bp

for reckless and careless drilling practices.

Bp must have lied on their financial statements claiming they did everything so safely

[Scuba]

11. +1,000

[Waiting For Everyman]

12. The "pensioners" are responsible for the damage they cause.

Just like anyone else would be.

[AllentownJake]

13. The Pensioners are investers

Welcome to capitalism. If you invest in a company and they go bankrupt, you lose your investment. Probably should pay attention to what the management of your investment is up to.

[Richard Steele]

15. Steaming codswollop.

nm

[Tsiyu]

19. Cry me an oil-soaked river

if BP had bought a $500,000 part, instead of being cheap, greedy slimeballs out for quick profit, the pensioners wouldn't have anything to worry about.

Obama wasn't drilling in the Gulf.

BP was.

And the suffering of our Gulf coast humans and wildlife trumps the "suffering" of pensioners who are blissfully far removed from the mess their "investment" has caused.

[Skidmore]

22. Perhaps Cameron should be standing in front of Parliament asking

for a bailout for BP. This nation sucked it in and bailed out those damned financial institutions to save the nation and the world. I believe the bank of Scotland was among them. Time for someone else to shoulder some of the burden. We're tapped out.