Gone, Gone, The Damage Done

BP finally stopped the gushing of oil from its damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, but it's only a temporary solution. The well is being capped for the time being while a relief well continues to be drilled for a more permanent solution. For many, it's a case of too little, too late. Numerous marshes and coastlines have been destroyed, wildlife has been adversely affected, and the tourist business at Gulf resort towns have dropped sharply. The oil that has already leaked out will take years, if not decades, to clean up. And Joe Barton and possibly David Vitter will continue to apologize to BP for inconveniencing them.

Meanwhile, the Senate finally passed a financial reform bill that President Obama will now sign into law. The legislation will create a consumer financial protection bureau to regulate the trading of derivatives but small businesses to keep using them to mitigate risks. It also establishes establishing a new authority to liquidate large Wall Street firms and force shareholders and creditors rather than taxpayers to assume any costs involved. What the bill will not do is get rid of any and all speculation by large banks, and companies will still be big enough to cause a lot of misery if they do fail. An amendment sponsored by Democratic senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Carl Levin of Michigan would have addressed those points, but it was never allowed to come up to a vote. The new regulations fall far short of what the British, for example, have done to regulate their financial sector in the wake of 9/15, and the law will take awhile to implement. I suppose it's better than nothing, and without the support of three Senate Republicans - Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who in this case are the "New England Patriots" - nothing is exactly what Obama would have gotten.

The law comes too late for those affected by the 9/15 Wall Street meltdown, as Senate bill sponsor Christopher Dodd (D-CT) woefully admitted. And for those for whom it's not too late, it may not help much.

Even after BP and 9/15, Americans will still be addicted to cheap oil and easy money.

And every junkie's like the setting sun.