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Slipped into this Reuters piece is the news that BP has hired Goldman Sachs as "advisers" for unknown purposes, in addition to Pete Peterson’s Blackstone Group and Credit Suisse Group. (Tip o’ the hat to Brad Johnson)
BP has hired investment banks Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Group and Credit Suisse Group as advisers, a source familiar with the matter said, without identifying the purpose of the advice.
It’s funny because if the Vampire Squid lived in the Gulf of Mexico, it’d be choking to death on BP’s oil. Assuming, of course, it doesn’t actually thrive on crude oil.
As for the advice Goldman & Co. might give to BP, there’s one thing the MOTUs seem to be quite good at doing: limiting liability, being giant corporate assholes, screwing the country, and still turning a tidy profit. BP’s chances on the latter may be slim as their liability goes up with each gallon of crude gushing into the Gulf.
But if anyone can get BP through this sea of sludge, it’s Goldman Sachs. What have they got to lose?
63 Comments
Yes, this is very much an alliance of predators. The downside for BP is that Goldman is known for taking information from its clients and then using that information against them. The Obama Adminstration is corporatist in the extreme, but if BP gets too fancy, the goverment has the power to strip BP of its leases and permits.
You have a point, Hugh, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
I thought BP had been playing footsie with GS since the day the rig blew up?? Or did I just make that up because, of course, these 2 criminal organizations would join forces to shore each other up? They can trade insider knowledge on how best to rip off the gullible serfs, along with the idiots in Congress – eh?
Maybe BP hired them to find out which lawmakers are most easily bribed.
GS is the tenth largest holder of BP stock. Would it surprise us to learn that GS approached BP and said, “We can help you”?
Some have reported that Goldman-Sachs is the real president of the United States. I see proof of this every day, since the Bush “presidency”.
PS: Isn’t it odd that BP’s stock price is rising right now, while HP reports that BP’s rating was just lowered to near junk-status?
Or which of the Administartion criminals are better to bribe. Geithner, summers, or the myriad of “old” Goldman people. The real problem will be to narrow down their options.
bribing ?? WH accomplices are ‘ho bags- appear to be doing it for BP ball caps and set of ice tea glasses
They can compare their separate lists of lawmakers who are easily bribed, as well as comparing notes on how to rip off serfs and the obscenely wealthy, alike, while being as feckless and incompetent, as possible, AND comparing notes on who broke the most laws and got away with bribing and/or sleeping with and/or drugging with the most regulatory agency workers.
Is that a complete list, or am I missing something evil, incompetent and/or illegal that they both did?
Today the news stated that stock in BP fell to it’s lowest ever. Now let us watch as Goldman Sachs buys x amount of shares that they sold right before the blow-out. Wait a minute… I am still reeling from the news about BP bringing in a ship not to capture but to burn off , something like 450,000 gals. of oil.
They are going to capture and burn? How about skimming and burn….
No no this is all too surealistic (1 or 2 rs?) I am still aching as I have been everyday because the slow suffocating death of all Life in the magnificent Gulf of Mexico.
Why is it that Coast Guard shuts down fishing yet let us assume that of course is fishing for food for human consumption. So then should not the fishing boats be allowed to fish for specimens that will be needed for research? Or are those to decompose and ad to the methane percolating through the subsea floor? Why is it the no fly zone is allowed? These are federal waters and we are US citizens for a no fly zone to be enforced or allowed doesn’t it first need something like a court order or martial law.? Of course all in the clear mind-set know it is the same as the disallowance of reporters or just plain folks to check on the bird nesting areas. All the decapitating raking of birds is taking place large scale in the no fly zone with the dead and dying marine mammals being disposed of in ship hulls.
Michael Moore should be here. But where are the defiant ones who stand up for what is right? Why isn’t Paul Watsons Seashepard ship in the water? Green Peace? all the enviro group ships taking a stand. Where are the celebs such as DiCaprio, Baldwin etc.? Why aren’t there more celebrities down at the Gulf. Why has your Bonos or Stings writing a We are the World version of Gulf Death and throwing a free concert so that then with strength in numbers they, by the thousands, with cameras rolling, can stand upon the shores and point saying “Clean up this oil…Right now” and not leave till it is done. Then off to the marshes. NOW
Silence is the voice of complicity. We are all so either passive or timid.
If these fiduciaries of mega assets can provide cover for BP qua client, all the better for Cameron and the City.
Most Americans must be incapable of thinking abstractly enough to realize that the way BP screwed the Gulf Coast is very similar to the way Goldman screwed America from coast to coast; otherwise, people across America would be filing damage claims against Goldman, just as people around the Gulf are doing so against BP.
I think you answered your own implied question. Most Americans are asleep at the wheel and, sadly, cannot even connect “the dots” that are as glaringly large and overlapping as these are.
Are there any class action suits?
Since British Petroleum has dealt with the government and the public in bad faith since many years prior to this disaster, it’s nothing short of criminal negligence to continue to allow them to call the shots in any of this. BP and GS have both committed crimes yet they are allowed to team up now?
What did they hire GS to do?
“God’s Work”
Of course. Why didn’t I remember that !
Interesting… I see a circling of the wagons…. :)
B.P. can’t afford to let people get too close a look at the upper levels of the company, its connections and its ‘Friends’.
It opens doors to the whole incestuous relationship with many other companies/board of directors/family/politicians. Lots of shady stuff there and those folks are running out of lawyers to hire.. ;)
there have also been scattered reports of both Corps ‘shorting’ BP stock before the disaster – I would imagine that could be easily verified, has anyone found anything concrete ??
BP is maneuvering to sell off all it’s assets leaving a shell company to file bankruptcy and avoid fines/liability.
Bingo! Good catch. For sure!
…and shorting the shell of it’s unctuous “s,” they’ll have a hell company. “Hey Ken Lay, is that you?! You’re looking well tanned!”
heh – I’ve always maintained that Ken Lay is alive and well and living somewhere on Bush family property… like maybe on the Bush family spread in Uruguay. I have nothing to back this up of course.
Since B.P. acts more like a banker (example Enron) than a manufacturer, this may be easier than people think.
President Obama is also transferring responsibility to the MMS and away from B.P. Bad news for “we the people”.
For another perspective:
The Spill, The Scandal, and the President
That’s one I missed, thanks . . . what a read.
That is why it is essential to seize BP’s assets now, while there are still tangible assets that can be sold off. If the psychopaths in the White House let BP gut the company and leave us holding the bag for cleanup they needn’t wait for 2013 to start looking for jobs as lobbyists.
Don’t you get it? BP, GS, THEY OWN OBAMA.
The escrow fund will only be $7.25 Billion. The meeting on Wednesday is all political kabuki.
Bingo.
How does this relate to the fact that J.P. Morgan Chase is the biggest B.P. shareholder? Just curious as to why J.P. Morgan Chase wasn’t hired…media issue, laws about shareholders, what exactly?
Been meaning to write this up for some time, but how many here realize that one of the key members of the Intelligence Science Board’s Senior
Advisory Group on “Educing Information” (PDF) — the document upon which Obama bases his new HIG interrogation group for “high-level” AQ types, etc., is none other than Randall Fort, Vice President, Goldman Sachs.
What is a Goldman Sachs VP doing parading as an expert on interrogation? Well, according to his State Dept. bio:
According to Right Web, Fort was placed at State’s INR to replace Bolton opponent, conservative Carl Ford. Even more:
If Goldman Sachs finds its fingers in a number of pies, it’s because their apparatus is already highly integrated into the national security state, as is BP, by the way, making them not strange bedfellows, but comrades in arms, if you will.
Of course they are, and it’s silly to forget that it may not require more than one of their signatures to overrule the will of our president.
I grow ever more frustrated that the pudits and pols continue to make believe that Obama can somehow order BP to do anything it hasn’t already agreed to do.
When
the oil guys wereBushCo was in office, they could make believe that they were telling big oil what to do, and big oil could make believe that they were doing it.Now that the Dems are supposedly in control, we’re treated to the spectacle of the POTUS making believe he’s mad as hell, and big oil making believe they aren’t laughing at him.
The nitwits (us) believe they understand that the republicans are effective and the democrats are not.
In neither case do our leaders actually have any power to control the activities of legecy members of the National Security State Board of Directors, or it’s various apparatus.
So, the nitwits (us), don’t really understand much about how this stuff works, but maybe we’ve at least started trying lately.
Wow.
And thanks for sharing that.
Wow, in bed with it all, the 1%, to government, security, banking/finance, regulation of it all.
Dirtier and dirtier the more that comes to light . . . .
Let’s see, who’s missing, oh yeah…Xe (I think that’s what Blackwater calls itself now). Shouldn’t they be out their shooting anyone getting to close to the scene of the crime?
B.P. has already hired private security contractors (mercenaries), just not Blackwater (although we will probably find some relationship at a later date).
Actually. I did hear Blackwater has been on the scene all along as well as another one of the mercenary Storm Troopers for the ruling class.
I’ll see if I can find a link, though this was way back in the first few weeks. The government’s been censoring and editing a lot of stuff since then.
Wait a sec.
Isn’t this a blatant conflict of interest?
If Goldman Sachs is the US Treasury, how can they work for BP at the same time?
Isn’t this akin to playing with yourself?
I have been connecting the dots between the corporations, this administration, Obama backers and Congresspersons who are all heavily invested in the new ‘green economy’ and cap and trade legislation that will create a revenue stream of $400 billion dollars.
The powers that be have been very busy lately positioning themselves for the scam of the millenium and the American people are the easy marks.
Glad to see all of you at FDL are catching onto to the complete and utter collusion, the wholly incestuous relationship, that now exists between the federal government and Wall Street. Republican or Democrat the corporate masters have DC safely in their breast pocket.
Can progressives truly support, on any level such entrenched corporatists?
Welcome to the veal pen?
On a side note, our fearless Present-Voter-in-Chief is planning to outsource his leadership and appoint an oil spill ‘czar’.
http://www.canada.com/business/fp/Obama+name+recovery+czar+first+Oval+Office+address/3155919/story.html
I guess this is why Capt’n Kickass needs a ‘czar’
According to Gallup:
The majority of Americans (59%) say British Petroleum should pay for all financial losses resulting from the Gulf Coast oil spill, including wages of workers put out of work, even if those payments ultimately drive the company out of business. Seven out of 10 Americans (71%) say Obama has not been tough enough in his dealings with BP.
The results are from a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted June 11-13 as President Obama made a two-day trip to the Gulf area and prepared to speak to the nation on the oil spill situation Tuesday. …
The majority of Americans (53%) rate Obama’s handling of the spill as “poor” or “very poor,” compared with 81% who give BP the same rating. Obama’s ratings have not changed significantly over the past two and a half weeks, although slightly more Americans now rate the job he is doing as “very poor.” At the same time, more Americans (49%) now say BP is doing a very poor job of handling the spill, up from 39%. A separate Gallup poll conducted June 5-6 found thatObama’s job approval rating on handling the oil spill was 40%.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/140744/Americans-Pay-Losses-No-Matter-Cost.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_term=Politics
How about Talon and Wackenhut Security?
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/bp-hires-mercs-to-block-oily-beaches/
Still looking for Blackwater caring for Tony.
You may recall a story concerning the activities of employees of the private security company The ArmorGroup in Kabul, Afgahnistan.
From the Washington Post;
. . . they urinated on themselves and others, drank vodka poured off each other’s exposed buttocks, fondled and kissed one another and gallivanted around virtually nude…
…”These are very serious allegations, and we are treating them that way,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. “The secretary and the department have made it clear that we will have zero tolerance for the type of conduct that is alleged in these documents.
The guards work for ArmorGroup North America, which has a $180 million annual contract with the State Department to protect the embassy and the 1,000 diplomats, staffers and Afghan nationals who work there.
The State Department renewed the contract in July despite finding numerous performance deficiencies by ArmorGroup in recent years that were the subject of a Senate subcommittee hearing in June.
At the time, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Moser acknowledged “deficiencies” by the contractor but said “performance on the ground by ArmorGroup North America has been and is sound.” Subcommittee Chairman Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) agreed to the renewal of ArmorGroup’s contract, though she said she had reservations.
“Susan Pitcher, a spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services, the Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., company that owns ArmorGroup, declined to comment on Tuesday’s POGO report.”
Wackenhut is known in some circles as the Shadow CIA. (see link above)
Wackenhut’s institutional stockholder is Britain’s Barclays Global Investors International, which you will remember was bought by Blackrock, well connected Investment firm that has been described as a pioneer of mortgage backed securities in the United States.
From the NYT;
“For BlackRock, the purchase is the latest in a string of acquisitions that have made the firm a giant investment manager with $1.3 trillion in assets. The firm has advised the federal government on its financial bailout efforts, and is managing billions of dollars worth of troubled assets from Bear Stearns and the American International Group for the Federal Reserve.”
W4B;
So let’s look at it this way;
If you want to know why nobody in Washington DC stands up to the likes of AIG, Blackrock, Barcleys, BP, the FED, and all the rest of the W$ pirates, it’s because they have their own personal army, comprised, at least in part, of the most wantonly depraved individuals on the planet and you wouldn’t want a bunch of psychopaths like that to show up at your house would you?
If you think the tea-baggers are bad, just wait till The Armor Group, Wackenhut, Blackwater, Xe, or whatever shows up in your town.
Oh wait, that’s already happened, hasn’t it?
Blackwater was hired to help with security in New Orleans after Katrina.
“…They’re back …”
Yes, that’s right.
The body waste boys of Kabul. Perfect match with BP.
They thrive on shit.
You know, considering they are happy to kill innocent Americans I believe they’ve found their perfect mates with BP and Goldman Sachs.
Considering how these pirates treat us, it comes as no surprise that they’d invest in private armies to protect themselves from us just in case we ever decide to wake up.
ahem… indeed. good info and good reminder.
Who is representing Halliburton, acting as P.R. and mercenaries since they are also responsible for this oil catastrophe along with B.P. and Transocean?
Goldman needs to be sacked.
its
It might be worth looking into the fact that
Link
Make no mistake. Hiring GS is about lobbying might, sure. It’s also about restructuring BP – for a whopping fee – and about hiding its assets and about putting as many of them beyond arm’s reach as possible. Making sure BP does what it promises is only the beginning of the battle.
Gooldman Sachs, TBTF my ass.
They’ve highjacked the US government through sadistic, greedy, power mad, presidential appointee sociopaths who’ve been working for the world’s bankers, not the American people.
OBAMA demands compensation
OBAMA uses oil spill to push his agenda
BP hires Goldman Sachs
People want more Money…..
Meanwhile, the oil continues to flow and no body, even this president, is doing anything, anything within their power to fix this nightmare. BP does not have the answers. Stop listening to BP. Nationalize them and shut them up. Next, call MIT and the Navy and the greatest oil people (real ones) together and lock them in a room till they come up with at least three solutions and have all of shipyards with materials ready to move. When they come up with three solutions…do whatever it takes to move on the one you choose…… Now, get to work Mr. President, and do your job !!!! Stop talking compensation and money and start talking work and solutions….just do it !!! Or you will sink and bring your party down with you…if you fail to provide leadership NOW !!!
BP Internationl knows its America division is going to declare bankruptcy, and so GS is setting up a financial instrument(s) to allow BP International to make a killing when BP America belly up.
BP will put up a very good show, telling the public that the BP International will back up BP America, and that BP America will get through this, regardless of what it takes.
So when BP America finally closes its doors, BP International will have made out like a bandit, which of course is what the whole system is about.
America now is not what I grew up with. The trust between people is gone, soiled by capitalism and the constant need to boost the bottom line, regardless of who it harms, except for thee.
That’s about what I was thinking. Not just BP Plc. betting against BP America, but lots of high rolling nations, corporations, and individuals companies buying massively leveraged naked credit default swaps on BP America so that if it fails, they make out like bandits.
Now… when BP America does fail and all those swaps become due and payable… where is all that money gonna come from? AIG Bailout Debacle Part II?
Nicely put . . . . very reasonable and doable.
Bobswern over at Kos had an edifying piece on Peter Sutherland who serve(d/s) as Chairman of both BP (1997 to September 2009) and Goldman-Sachs International (1995 – present).
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/15/3554/15420Goldman isn’t divining the markets (though they may well be manipulating them). From their hires and placements it is clear that they leave nothing to chance when it comes to their bottom line.
-Sorry for the double post.
Reminds me of Bernanke hiring Enron’s PR expert to fight against an audit of the FED.
Folks are pretty unhappy with the behavior of our big corporations. One theme which these companies have in common is a “winner take all” mentality. The idea that you get ahead by pushing things beyond safe limits and that a lie is not a lie unless you get caught. It’s all about ripping the other guys face off in the name of greed.
Milton Friedman’s greed culture pushes shared interests out of alignment. And the thing is, economics is not a zero sum game. Everyone can win and equally, everyone can lose. If interests are out of alignment, some may benefit in the next quarterly report but everyone loses in the long run.
Our neoliberal economy is a death cult.
I’d hire Goldman Sachs too if I was BP. GS robbed the entire country , got the US government to hand over what was in the treasury , lost a fortune of money that didn’t belong to them (theft) and got three times richer in the process when normal people would be in jail.
BP has just hired the Elite controlling the country, the purse strings, and the US government.
Oh, and has anyone here mentioned the “Harper’s” piece on Goldman’s called “The Food Bubble”? Making profits on starvation is creepy and, of course, the way of the Squid. And yes, the Squid gorges and grows fat on oil mixed with dead marine life.
Look at all the incest going on with BP stock before the blowout.
I’ll put up the links below.
Let’s not forget who was at the helm but Haliburton, certainly capable of sabotage with BP.
Then there was Transocean who got a few hundred million in insurance claims, and handed out 1 million to their shareholders right quick.
Haliburton bought Boots and Coots eight days before the gusher blew. Boots and Coots are oil rig blowout experts, like fires and stuff. Did BP deliberately cut corners and ignore safety followed by Haliburton doing a shitty cement job in the hopes of a blowout? Was MMS in on it, Salazar, Obama, and GS?
God, you hate to be a foil head but sometimes…. it’s tough to ignore.
If so, these diseased minds probably didn’t think they’d lose control of the gusher. Then again, they will still profit and we, the wildlife, and our brothers and sisters in the Gulf will suffer.
Tony sells a tidy sum of stock.
LINK http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19592
Goldman sells lots of BP stock weeks before.
LINK http://radiopatriot.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/bp-oil-shares-sell-off-what-did-goldman-sachs-know-and-when-did-they-know-it/
Haliburton shares soar.
LINK http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/halliburton-shares-soar-as-company-outlines-obligations-in-bp-oi/19500641/
Then there’s the timing of the Boots and Coots purchase
LINK http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/halliburton-snaps-up-boots-and-coots/19435689/
And finally, I heard today that the State of NJ’s pension fund sold off a shitload of BP stock two days before the blowout. How did Jersey know? Well, our recently rejected governor Jon Corzine was a former CEO for GS not too long ago and surely has many connections in government here.
When it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it ain’t no rabbit.
Interesting coincidence with the NJ governor. Wasn’t another NJ governor in charge of the whitewash of another contrived disaster?
Hmmm. Let’s see. We’ve had McGreevey who came out of the closet one day, and that was the end of him. Then we had Cody who was MCGreevey’s Lt. Gov. to finish out his term. Cody was actually a good guy. He didn’t run after the term was finished. Then Corzine was elected.
Now we’ve got a real right wing maniac.
I didn’t check out your link though, must do that now.
Ah, yes. Of course. Mr. Whitewash himself. Good call.
Because Obama thinks Goldman are pretty savvy guys and BP will get free pass and get obama off their backs. Then BP ceo can also be a pretty savvy guy who knows what he’s doing.