What will BP owe America? [View All]

From the New Orleans Time Picayune "Water sustains the region's economy like blood in the body. Commercial and sport fishing businesses support dock services, tackle shops and gas stations. Restaurants are Louisiana's largest private-sector employer, with 140,000 workers and a direct annual economic impact of $5 billion. Wendy Waren, vice president of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, says nearly two-thirds of them serve some type of seafood.

Then there are some of the busiest shipping ports in the world, moving oil from offshore rigs up the Mississippi River and Midwestern grain out to sea to feed the rest of the world.

All are vital to world commerce and have a potential impact on consumer pocketbooks.

The Port of Gulfport in Mississippi is the nation's second-largest importer of green fruit, with Central American bananas from Chiquita and Dole accounting for 74 percent of its imported cargo in 2007.

The Port of New Orleans handled 73 millions tons of cargo in 2008, including coffee from South America and steel from Japan, Russia, Brazil and Mexico."



With appropriate recognition of previous disasters, this may turn out to be the worst environmental catastrophe in history.

Cleanup costs aside, the harm to coastal business will be catastropic - and expensive. Wonder how much sympathy BP execs will get in US courts, assuming we can ever get them there.

Will the damage exceed the value of BP, Halliburton and the rest of the oil industry combined? If so, should the government take over the oil business? Sieze their assets?

Could Washington really do any worse than BP, Halliburton and the rest have done?

The economics of this are mind-boggling.