WSJ editorial board is jerking apoplectic about Obama having his hands in BP's pockets to take all that hard earned cash belonging to pensioners. Echos of Youngstown Steel. All of a sudden an editorial board that constantly argued for unbounded presidential powers in the face of national emergencies during the Bush years believes in limits to the President's emergency powers. An unfettered President is o.k. in a war against phantoms but not when the Gulf of Mexico is destroyed along with the livelihoods of all those dependent on it.
Actually, I agree with the WSJ editorial board that Obama doesn't have the legal right to make BP suspend its dividend payment. But he doesn't need it, he's got the practical power to force BP to pay into an escrow account. He can revoke all of BP's oil leases, ban it from doing business with any U.S. government entity, and make its life regulatory hell. Let's not give short shrift the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, institutions well practiced in shaking big corporations down. Obama has plenty of legal weapons in his arsenal, even if he doesn't have the technical right to prevent BP's dividend payments.
As for all the poor pensioners, this is just another object lesson on why diversifying your retirement portfolio is so important. Shut up before I go over there and start dumping oil in the English Channel.
