

One ‘Small’ Statement Backfires on BP - px
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/one-small-statement-backfires-on-bp/

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credo
I have very little or no sympathy for BP and for their CEO or for their
apologists.

However, I think it is unfair to attack a Swedish guy (who probably speaks
English as a 3rd or 4th language) for saying "small people" when he probably
intended to say something like "little guy" or "ordinary people"

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soult
I speak English as a second language and I was convinced that "small people"
is a synonym for "ordinary people" until I read this article.

The German expression "Der kleine Mann" means "ordinary man" (in the context
of an ordinary man against a big company or the government), but the word
"klein" literally translates to "small"/"little".

~~~
jdminhbg
"The little guy" means something similar, but with the added connotation of
being an underdog (which sounds like what you describe "Der kleine Mann" as).
Tiny idiomatic differences!

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btilly
That article left me with no respect for Gov. Haley Barbour. His concern is
that putting money in an escrow account will hurt BP's ability to do business
and make money to pay people back. But the escrow account is being filled by
diverting money that otherwise would have gone to dividend payments, which is
money taken out of the company and put back in the pockets of investors.
Therefore this does not change by one cent how much operating capital BP will
have to pursue its business.

~~~
hga
Not paying dividends for 2 years is going to significantly change BP's ability
to raise capital; dividend cuts or suspensions are _always_ taken as a sign of
financial stress, and that's certainly what's happening here.

And who says 20 billion is the limit? A lot of people fear it's just the
start.

~~~
btilly
_Not paying dividends for 2 years is going to significantly change BP's
ability to raise capital; dividend cuts or suspensions are always taken as a
sign of financial stress, and that's certainly what's happening here._

You're shooting the messenger here. Their ability to raise capital has been
hurt by their legal liabilities, not by the dividend cut. In fact the dividend
cut helps their ability to raise capital, not hurts it!

What this move does is transfer money from BP's investors to inevitable
creditors. This therefore costs investors money up front, and reduces the
chances of eventual bankruptcy. That makes it harder for them to raise money
by selling stock, and easier to raise it in the credit markets. With their
current problems they are better off going to the credit markets, so this
helps them.

 _And who says 20 billion is the limit? A lot of people fear it's just the
start._

I agree that 20 billion is a lower limit of their likely liabilities. Which is
why they should start saving up to pay those liabilities as soon as possible.

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aasarava
Not to hijack this thread, but I find it interesting to compare the fallout of
the BP CEO's speech with the analysis of Obama's speech about the disaster:
[http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/16/obama.speech.analysis...](http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/16/obama.speech.analysis/)

Choose your words wisely because people are going to interpret them in ways
you didn't expect.

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melvin
It would be typical of the media/American public to act as if this statement
was what made them think that they were not respected by the individuals who
run corporations, while they didn't seem to get the idea from 150+ years of
being abused by corporate aristocrats.

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stretchwithme
and if he had referred to the average person, doubtlessly there'd be someone
ripping on him for thinking he's above average.

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ninjac0der
Blame BP, blame regulation, blah blah blah. When it comes down to it, the real
problem is the american people who sit on their asses feeling they've done
good by voting for the next (obvious to those who pay attention) promise-
anything-for-power president.

As far as I'm concerned, this has nothing to do with a "private" over-sized
company and everything to do with how relaxed americans have become when
complaining about their goverment or goverment-assisted companies. Where's
your nationalism now?

