The Oil Crisis

The labors of Sisyphus in the state of Louisiana: With plastic bags and shovels, volunteers — assembled by BP — are trying to clean oil off the beaches. A few hours later, they have to start again from scratch. This will go on for a long time, because, up to now, all solutions tried by the oil giant to stop the flow into the Gulf of Mexico have ended in failure. BP has no plan; instead, they’re trying anything and everything their technicians can come up with — next, they may perhaps try shooting golf balls into the underwater well.

The whole chaotic scene is reminiscent of the banking crisis 19 months earlier. First, safeguards were neglected. When the catastrophe struck, the public was shocked to learn there was no crisis management. And the innocent bystanders are the ones who end up suffering the consequences as their livelihoods are destroyed.

Here, as well as there, the same policies cannot be allowed to continue. Governments must take measures to ensure that such a catastrophe cannot happen again; if they cannot do that, at the very least, they must be able to react quickly and effectively. In addition, there has to be a fundamental rethinking of energy policy. That would mean a departure from dependency on oil, but President Obama's latest statements give little cause for optimism on that score.

But there is one important difference between this crisis and the bank meltdowns: A leaking oil well can’t be plugged by pumping huge numbers of U.S. dollars into it.