America is Closed for Business.
What is true for people is also true for the other tax-paying entity, the company. And what Barack Obama has done yesterday, in arbrtiarily confiscating assetts without due process or any form of contract, is to raise the fear of arbritary confiscations from other businesses which may displease the mob in the future. This is contrary to the principles of the rule of Law. This is not a defence of BP, who appear to have been reckless, but no-one thinks they are not already doing everything in their power (they are of course denied some assets for political reasons) to clean up the mess, and they have paid nearly all the claims for compensation they have already received. BP was emphatically NOT shirking its responsibility, and has endured a politically motivated lynch mob mentality orchestrated from the White house. Obama knows what he is doing is illegal and unconstitutional. BP could demand that its contracts are met, that Haliburton and others pay their share, but this would destroy them politically.
The conclusion is clear, whatever Fishermen from Louisiana think, Obama is abusing his office.
The risk of doing business in the USA is already great, and has got much, much worse. Many non-US companies already refuse to have a US shareholder on their books (next time you receive a prospectus, look for the words “not for distribution in the USA” on the front). Thus the capital markets of the world are closing to US interests. Soon internationally minded US companies will start moving their brass plaques from Delaware to London, Frankfurt, Dublin, Dubai, Hong Kong or other more kindly jurisdictions. Americans may not notice this while their domestic capital markets are wide and deep, but they may find their next recession deeper and longer as the once great nation slides back into the protectionism that caused the last depression.
Obama. By pandering to the mob by offering to keep his “boot on the throat” of BP and demanding extra judicial compensation (which WILL be used as a political slush-fund) has become the worst president in American History. And given who he followed, that was always going to be tough. A president of less historical renown (no peace prize for Mr Coolidge), but much greater stature said “the Business of America is Business“.
Not any more.
" . . but this would destroy them politically"
Who is "them"? Halliburton and Transocean or BP? If BP, it's already been destroyed politically in the US. Quite why it continues to be so supine is a mystery – or maybe it isn't. Although, as you say, BP – from the first – stated that it would meet all legitimate compensation claims, the immediate risk is now to BP executives. Unless they keep licking Obama's and Congress's boots they'll be up on a criminal charge before you can say "Obama is shite".
Also, if you're correct (about the US being closed for business and the illegality of Obama's policy) then the damage you foresee is long-term and will certainly post-date the November elections. This is all Obama and the Democrats in Congress (and, as it happens, a major foreign cheerleader for Obama – the BBC) care about at the moment.
BTW you're spot on re the "compensation" fund. Handing $20 billion to politicians for distribution is asking for trouble: any African dictator could tell you (and the Department for Overseas "Development") that.
An Obamanation…..
Your post is spot on.
Obama does not follow the rule of law and I can't believe he continues to get away with all that he has. Many Americans are putting down the remote and bag of chips and are starting to take note, The tea party movement here is waking up people albeit slowly. We are hopeful we can kick out many dems this November and cripple his agenda. At this point, gridlock would be good.
I heard recently that Obama would like to apply the death tax not only to americans but to anyone who owns US stock. Countries will not want to do business with a country who changes the rules based on a political whim and not on the rule of law.
The latest news over here is that Obama has used at least a dozen different Social Security numbers during his lifetime, issue by at least a half-dozen different states. (It is generally illegal to have more than one number. You might be able to get a replacement number if you go into the Witness Protection Program, or something like that.) He held his first job as a young teenager in Hawaii, yet his first social security number was issued in Connecticut. (You can tell from the first digits in the number where it was issued.) Obama NEVER lived in Connecticut, and some of the numbers he has used are numbers issued to people who have died.
The man is a major fraudster, and we have 2 1/2 years left to go. You may not like the fact that he hates the British, but imagine our horror that he despises America.
Nobody knows who Obama is, but the theory that he hates British people because his father was Kenyan is starting to look plausible enough. His hatred of America is somewhat more difficult to figure out, as America has been pretty good to him.