Maybe the market is working

At least in the case of BP

BP stock sank to its lowest point in 14 years Wednesday as investors feared the company would be overwhelmed by the costs of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps forcing it to cut its robust dividend to pay for the disaster.

The stock dropped $5.45, or 16 percent — easily its worst day since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded seven weeks ago. The company has lost half its market value, a stunning $95 billion, in that time.

On Wednesday alone, 238 million shares of BP changed hands, an extraordinary number that was more than double the company’s volume for some days earlier this month.

“It’s not time for logic. It’s not time for being rational,” Fadel Gheit, energy analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., said of the selling. “When people say run, you run too. It’s a mob mentality.”

BP really should be on its way to being the new Enron, nothing more than a bankrupt company that is the butt of jokes and its CEO serving a long jail term. Hopefully Obama and co will do the right thing in this case, end offshore drilling and punish those responsible for destroying the gulf coast.