Bye, bye, Mr. English pie!

The lead-footed Tony Hayward has been thrown over the side of the BP recovery vessel, to be replaced by the American Robert Dudley. Unlike the U.S. Congress, where bad judgment is rewarded by increased influence (see the career curve of Barney Frank), private corporations do have the ability to jettison those who preside over disasters, whether they deserve to be thrown overboard or not. But coming as it does after a year and a half of governmental meddling in business affairs (see the career curve of Rick Wagoner, former CEO of Governmental Motors), I can't help wondering if the Obama White House had something to do with BP's decision.

There's a word for this sort of thing. Right-wing bloggers call it "socialism," but that isn't quite right. Rather, it's state capitalism, as practiced in the 1930s by Germany, Japan, and Italy, and as more recently revived in China, Russia, and Venezuela. The government doesn't actually take over an industry, as the Labour government did in Britain in 1945; instead it leaves the corporations in place--or create new corporations, in the case of China. But they are hollow. The government hires and fires the managers, and it confiscates the profits, whether by taxation or simple extortion. BP likes to pretend that its initials stand for Beyond Petroleum. Mr. Dudley knows better: the new company is Beyond Profitability. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford