Tony Hayward to Lead Egypt Deepwater Exploration

The man who headed BP for the 2010 Gulf Oil Spew will lead The Carlyle Group's deepwater exploration off Egypt.  OilPrice reported:

During the meeting with Egyptian officials this week, Carlyle’s representatives said that the North African country provides attractive investment opportunities, and Carlyle intends to use advanced technologies for deepwater exploration activities. 

Carlyle plans to boost production of oil and gas in Egypt and turn it into a hub for receiving and distributing the group’s production in the Mediterranean.

Egypt, for its part, is currently looking to import in the coming months the highest number of LNG cargoes in years as it looks to ease the strain on its grid and industry amid energy shortages that have led to rolling blackouts this summer.

Let's review Hayward's leadership right after the rig explosion:

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume".

"It is impossible to say and we will mount, as part of the aftermath, a very detailed environmental assessment but everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact will be very, very modest."

"The first thing to say is I'm sorry. We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused their lives. There's no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back."

Eleven workers died in the rig explosion and family members found Hayward's comments insensitive and offensive.  It sealed Tony's wanker status with the common person.  The Carlyle Group, a politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU) felt otherwise, hiring Hayward in 2016.

Consequences?  There are no consequences for the PEU boys.  Hayward got his "life back" and more.  It's like they have immunity with imPEUunity.  

Someone should warn the Egyptians.  Tony can destroy a Delta in his search for alpha.  It's what leviathans do.  

The Carlyle Group knows because it's one, reshaping the world for ever increasing power and profit.  Lord, make it stop.

Update 7-4-24:  ZeroHedge reported:

Egypt is now undergoing a mass structural transformation, with millions of people plunged into poverty and wealth accumulating in the hands of a few, namely the military elites and their cronies. 

The piece mentioned a $35 billion investment from the United Arab Emirates.  Carlyle's Harvey Schwartz and David Rubenstein just spoke about being in Dubai at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit.

No Iconoclasts Here: Just PEUs

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein interviewed Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz at Forbes Iconoclast Summit.  Rubenstein did his usual affable, low key job of lobbing softball questions.  Schawartz joked during the session that "none of this had been rehearsed."  

Questions included the migration of private equity executives into White House administrations, the ethical benefits of working for a private equity underwriter (PEU) and how it contributes to a "good life."  They tackled the Presidential election and which is harder, firing people or working as a bouncer in a nightclub.  

Rubenstein worked hard to make Harvey look somewhat accessible.  Neither man looked like an iconoclast given private equity's "holy grail" status.

The PEU infomercial covered why anyone should invest in private equity.  The session closed with Rubenstein asking if Harvey was stranded on a deserted island and could only have one magazine, what would it be?  Harvey said "Forbes" and the moderator said "Right answer."  Thus punctuating the non-iconoclast nature of the session.

Advantaged Get More Power from Supremes

The conservative Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling in what is known as the Chevron case.  It effectively eliminated the preference courts gave federal regulators charged with interpreting laws, sometimes decades or centuries old.  

Better Markets stated:

“This decision threatens to return the United States to the 1910s when the government had very limited ability to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Americans. It’s going to affect everything from airbags in peoples’ cars to the quality of the food they feed their families and the water they drink. It is going to re-order the relationship between the government and the courts and the American people. It also has the potential to return the country to the control of Wall Street banks, financiers, corporations, CEOs, and the modern-day robber barons because it will be much more difficult for the government to constrain their predatory and often illegal conduct in a timely or effective way.

The public must rely on Congress to not only fund the government, something it seems incapable of doing without theatrical deadlines. but to update prior laws so regulators have the basis to perform their job.  

Congress has been asleep in regard to current and future threats to citizens.  They can't protect children from the well documented harms of social media, keeping in place liability protection for tech companies facilitating or directly causing that harm. 

The Supreme Court placed a larger burden on an incapable Congress, one already oriented to the richest elements of our society.  Private equity underwriters (PEU) want access to Uncle Sam's wallet but hate paying taxes.  Both political teams campaigned on eliminating PEU preferred "carried interest" taxation, yet they never got together over the last fifteen years to accomplish this simple feat.  

The ruling makes clear that the advantaged deserve more advantages, billionaires deserve more billions and that they are the focus of the "guards on duty", not we the people.  It builds on the Citizens United which turned the passing of money into "free speech."  The system has "rich man" momentum, changes are happening exponentially (like the growth of billionaire wealth).   

The Federal Trade Commission recently sought public comment on health care consolidation, many of those deals done by private equity underwriters.  The PEU lobby wrote:

The private equity industry is an essential pillar of the modern American economy, a catalyst of competition and innovation, and a critical partner to small businesses.

Yet, there are thousands of letters detailing the harm private equity firms have inflicted upon citizens.  Many are from emergency room physicians.  News reports show PEU ownership hurting autistic children.

Don't expect this clown car of Congress to fulfill their current, much less added duties.  This group of under performers is too busy making fundraising calls (to the people pushing secondary PEU investments, cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence).

As for insider trading and other SEC violations the public knows Congress excels at profiting from nonpublic information, as did many Federal Reserve Bank Governors.  I imagine the Supreme Court, with its hands off approach to judicial ethics, enables similar behavior.  That explains the need to minimize whistleblowers, one of the few tools left to equalize the PEU power differential.

Politicians Red and Blue love (PEU) and increasingly, more are one.  The Supreme Court just did their bidding.  It's a PEU world.  Fees, fraud and fealty, oh my!

Update:  The Supremes also made it harder for the SEC to go after crypto-criminals, which widely occupy the space.

Update 7-3-24:  With Independence Day fast approaching the Supreme Court gave former President Donald Trump immunity which he will use with impunity.  I'm not such they could have picked a worse person to enable.  The Purge may just be in our future.

Conservative icon Michael Luttig characterized the immunity decision:

“This is indeed an historic day in constitutional history as well as for the nation” and represents the “unsouling of America.”

“America’s democracy and rule of law are this country’s heart and soul,” he continued. “Our democracy and the rule of law are what had made America the envy of the world and the beacon of freedom to the world for almost 250 years now. Today, the Supreme Court cut that heart and soul out of America.” 

“No longer can it be said that in America no man is above the law,” he added.

Update 7-4-24:  Former Trump DOJ officials suggest the Supreme Court ruling on Presidential immunity gives tacit approval for Trump to weaponize the Justice Department for vengeful purposes.