The New York Times has an article on BP and some of the companies many screw-ups. What really jumped out at me was this paragraph:
Tom Kirchmaier, a lecturer in strategy at the Manchester Business School, said that Mr. Browne tried to run BP like a financial company, rotating managers into new jobs with tough profit targets and then moving them before they had to deal with the consequences. The troubled Texas City refinery, for example, had five managers in six years.
This seems to be the business model for most companies right now, maximize profits and deal with the bancruptcy later. I am amazed that people continue to see the market as infallible in the wake of the numerous dissasters of the past few years.