Take your bets

One of the least edifying spectacles of the current debacle with BP and the Gulf of Mexico has been the sight of traders on international markets betting on the company’s parlous position.

According to a report in the Financial Times, 24 per cent of one of BP’s bond issues has been ’borrowed’ to facilitate short-term trading. In other words, traders are seeking to take advantage of falling prices by borrowing bonds to sell them before buying them back at a lower price.

BP has been hammered from all sides in the current disaster. Politicians, opinion leaders and the mass media have all lined up to wag fingers at BP over its action (or inaction, take your pick) in the Gulf of Mexico. The message underlying these sermons is that BP should be seen to act more responsibly. Much of this criticism is justified when considered from the environmental angle. It seems there is simply no ’good news’ angle here, however hard BP might try.

But BP is also a product of the commercial environment that it works in. We would say to BP, from our media tower, ’clean up the current unholy mess’, ’make a set of long-term decisions that will protect your employees and the environment’ and ’act responsibly in everything you do’. But then, a bunch of traders comes along and starts raking in millions of (insert your currency of choice here) by effectively taking a series of bets on your annus horribilis and, worse still, developing a vested interest in your company continuing to do badly.

You couldn’t make this sort of lunacy up. Mind you, at least it’s one thing that BP isn’t responsible for. That might even count as a ’good news’ angle.