Corporate Crime

Halliburton (and Exxon, and Mobil and…) cashes in on Katrina

Josh Marshall wondered on TPM where Dick Cheney is. Probably in an undisclosed location counting the profits he's making on his Halliburton stock options. Because the oil industry is making money off Katrina.

Doug Heller at HuffPost flags the venal looting by the moneyed:

The Yahoo Major Oil & Gas Index shows stocks up 5% since Monday. ExxonMobil is up 5%. Halliburton is up about 8%. Why would companies sustaining massive damage to their property be doing so well?

[snip]

And people should be angry. A rough calculation indicates that Exxon's value has increased by about $20 billion this week. How many senior executives in the oil industry have made millions in stock increases even as their oil rigs are torn apart? If the companies simply said that they would freeze prices temporarily and, when the situation stabilized, promised not to increase profits related to Katrina, the stocks wouldn't be jumping.