"Neither a floor nor a cap"

Louisanna should submit a claim for the whole $20B right now, before Florida beats them to it.

Hard to imagine the ecological damage is less than that. The long-term harm to the fishing and tourist industries must be more than that. Oh yeah, the health problems from the air pollution, don't forget that. And then there's the families of the 11 who were killed, and the injured, and the actual square miles of land that will be lost to erosion due to the oil killing the wetlands. Oh, and the homeowners taking a bath when they have to move from the area, and, and, and. Then multiply by Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, etc.

Sorry, but $20B is chump change compared to the cost of this disaster. My estimate is multiple trillions.

Neither is likely enough, but better than $20 billion.

Investors? Sorry, but investing in a rogue company can lead to a loss of everything -- e.g., Enron.

I mean, I thought the whole purpose of capitalism was to enable those willing to take a risk and who had the funds to invest in an endeavor. If the company does well, then the investors get rich. If the company does poorly, then the investors lose.

But ever since the bank and Wall Street bailouts, there seems to be this mindset that investors should always "win" regardless of how badly their investments perform...

directly. The fund is for the people who have been affected, like the fisherman.