Sorry Brits

[AllentownJake]

I'm hearing a lot of talk of what BP failing is doing to the British Pensioner and how this is all the Presidents fault.

First let me say this. If your Pension fund manager has more than 3% exposure to any one particular company, they should be tried for negligence and all their fees they charged you over the years should be recovered in court. I'd say the same thing if this was Exxon Mobil doing something insanely stupid and destructive and it was a public California Pension plan or one in my own state of PA.

Second, maybe you should look into how this manager was selected to manage your Pension fund. In general there is a lot of political cronyism going on. It happens over here too, I'm still trying to figure out what Rahm Emmanuel knows about mortgage lending from his time on one of our public/private company's board of directors. Did a particular politician pick his buddy from Oxford to watch your money instead of a competent person? You should ask that question, of the British government not our government.

Third, you want the benefits of capitalism without the risks. As a shareholder of BP, you get returns when the company makes money. When the company destroys our Gulf of Mexico, expect to lose money. Don't know if it is fair or not, but the system is supposed to work on accountability. Sorry, as a shareholder you share both in the fortunes and misfortunes of the assets you own. Thank God you aren't in a partnership, your liability is stuck at your intial investment.

Oh, and before you say anything about the financial crisis over here, London is actually more of a center of financial shenanigans globally than our little Manhattan. In fact, we have nothing on London. Our bankers look at the pillaging of the London exchanges and view you with envy. Lots of envy.

So give us that stern upper lip and take the hit chums. If it was Exxon off of your Coastline, I'd expect you'd be demanding we do the same.

Cheerio.

[WinkyDink]

1. The U.S. is not responsible for any other nation's pension funds!!!!!

[AllentownJake]

4. Hell we are barely responsible for our own

or with their management.

[Mimosa]

2. Your comment ought to be posted on the UK papers. n/t

[AllentownJake]

3. I'm sure they'd love me

Sorry my friends from across the pond, simple facts of the system.

Oh and Lehman brother's used your country to shelter fraud. That was in the report issued a little while ago.

[WinkyDink]

5. There ARE similar ones in the UK Telegraph "Comments":

Example:


simplejohn
Today 10:35 AM
Recommended by 2 people

Its the same old story of Democracy against Globalised markets.

President Obama is a democratically elected leader who has every right to speak up in defence of his country. Obama is'nt responsible for British Pensioners.

If a similar disaster happened off the coast of the UK we would expect the same from Cameron. Meanwhile the city infesters would be attempting to cash in as they always do. Would the Telegraph be expressing sympathy for American pensioners?

Future generations will look back at the way in which pensioners' futures were gambled on the behaviour of the stock market lemmings and laugh at our self-delusion and recklessness.

President Obama isn't responsible for Bhopal either - the Indian government and Union Carbide are.

We are at war in Afghanistan in the name of democracy. Democracy is meaningless in the face of International organisations like BP, the markets and the IMF. When I get to vote on their actions then I will care about what they think. Until then I do not expect a democratically elected leader to tiptoe round issues for fears of stock market idiocy. Report Recommend

[Mimosa]

8. Thanks. n/t

[TexasObserver]

6. "If your Pension fund manager has more than 3% exposure to any one particular company ...."

Indeed. They should be sued for negligence and gross negligence.

There's an untold story behind this latest spate of news stories. Many of the big brokerage houses treat foundation, pension and trust money like it was their own, and they use it to buy stocks when they're trying to shore up a certain stock. They don't really embrace the fiduciary duty they have toward such accounts. In fact, they lean on the foundations and trusts to do it their way.

These guys trying to blame Obama for the fall of BP stock are looking to ply a cover story they hope will assuage their clients.

[AllentownJake]

7. I'm sure there are a bunch of Credit Default Swaps

and other bizarre products on BP as well...probably held by the same idiotic people. More quasi insurance meant to confuse regulators without reserves. It is the 4th largest corporation in the world, bigger than most countries in terms of assets. Probably has more paper floating around as well.

What you have is Lehman 2 unfolding with BP. What is left of the British banking system will go with this company.

Great Britain does not have the financial firepower to save itself after saving their banks 2 years ago, without bringing the pound to parity with the dollar, which wipes them out just as much.

[TexasObserver]

9. Here's the reality of the current PR offensive by BP and others:

When this event began, many sat down and did the numbers and convinced themselves that BP would handle this mess, that it would cost billions, but that in the end, BP stock would be a deal at 80% of what it was the day the well blew. So the market felt that anything under $52 a share looked pretty good in the long term. Big investors held BP while smaller ones fled. The stock fell, and continued falling, as the story got worse every day.

What so many did not anticipate was the horror of this disaster and how it would destroy everything it touches, this modern day blob. They did not anticipate the liability and costs beyond a few months.

Fund managers who got caught with their pants down are desperate to find other scapegoats. They blame Obama because it's in their nature, and because it is politically pleasing to the clients to whom they answer.

If anything, Obama has been far too reasonable and gentle with BP.

[AllentownJake]

10. Cramer had them as a buy up till last night

Once again proving one of my thesis points. CNBC is a bunch of pump monkey idiots. You will lose money if you don't watch that channel on mute.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that in circumstances where the funds were managed by large banks, the fund managers transferred assets off of the banks sheet and onto the pension funds. Fiducuiary duty and all that aside ;-)

Of course with Cramer saying they are a buy they have cover...right ;-)

[TexasObserver]

11. Wall Street is the organ grinder, and Cramer is their monkey.

He's pathetic.

Buy Bear Stearns my ass!

[AllentownJake]

12. When they have something to dump

It is on Mad Money.

The man is the Baghdad Bob of Wall Street.

Any reasonable society would have him off the airwaves after the Daily Show proved him to be a fraud.

[TexasObserver]

13. "The man is the Baghdad Bob of Wall Street."

Nailed it!

[AllentownJake]

14. Self Kick

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. The human shield fallacy.

"You want to get compensation for some wrongdoing? Butbutbut that'll HURT THE INNOCENT TAXPAYERS!!111!!!11(exp(0))1!!"

Dishonest rhetoric with an agenda. Profanity is an appropriate response to those fuckwads.

[AllentownJake]

16. I expect photos of widows and Orphans any day now in Great Britain

My response is tough shit, widows and Orphans on our coast are getting hit.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

17. They're using the pensions for the human, emotional angle

Not that they're not an issue there, they are, but BP is also a substantial taxpayer in the UK.

BP paid £930m in UK tax on its profits in 2009, which was well down on the £1.7bn it had paid in each of the previous three years.
Continue reading the main story Oil tanker at BP petrol station Peston: BP's pain is America's pain

The company employs 10,105 people in the UK. The employees paid £490m in income tax and National Insurance on their earnings, while BP paid £110m in employer's National Insurance contributions.

If you add together the corporation tax and production tax paid by BP, together with the National Insurance and income tax paid by its employees and the VAT and fuel excise duty paid by its customers, you get £5.8bn, which is about enough to fund the entire budget of the Department for International Development.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10282777.stm

And that was during a down year.

[AllentownJake]

18. Oh this is one of the last vestiges of when Great Britain was an empire

Not a puppet of the US. It won't be around much longer in current form.