BP Agrees to Set Aside About $20 Billion for Spill Claims (NYT)

WOW! $20 billion which will cover what? Seven weeks ago our government estimated the spill at 1,000 barrels per day. Yesterday the same dart throwing experts estimated the leak at 35-60,000 barrels per day.

New York Times
By JACKIE CALMES

Published: June 16, 2010

WASHINGTON — BP tentatively agreed on Wednesday to create a $20 billion fund to pay claims for the worst oil spill in American history. The fund will be independently run by Kenneth Feinberg, the mediator who oversaw the 9/11 victims compensation fund, according to two people familiar with the deliberations.

The agreement was not final and was still being negotiated when President Obama and his top advisers met Wednesday morning with BP’s top executives and lawyers. Its preliminary terms would give BP several years to deposit the full amount into the fund so it could better manage cash flow, maintain its financial viability and not scare off investors.

The talks have been complicated by the fact that BP’s ultimate liabilities for the cleanup and lost business are unknowable since the two-month-old leak of its well in the Gulf of Mexico could well be spewing some oil for months more. To date, BP has spent more than $1 billion on containment, cleanup and claims from the Coast Guard, fishermen, oil workers and other businesses from Louisiana to Florida.
Link to complete article

Grandpa: News breaks and the U.S. equity market commences with a rally. A $20 billion down payment placed in an escrow account enhances our economy in what way...?? The equity market manipulation continues and the CNBC permabulls wonder when the retail investor will come back into this manipulative and fraud laden U.S. equity market.....Maybe at a time when the government provides real, unmassaged data, publically traded companies cease their accounting gimmicks and CNBC enters a zone of unbiased and factual information.

I guess the return of the retail linvestor will be a while...