Weekend Reading – Apologizing for Apologizing to BP Edition

In yet another week where the spill in the gulf dominated the headlines, one couldn’t help but notice the sequence of events where Obama first referred to kicking someone’s ass (so, presidential…but so 2010), to then, massive calls for a suspension of BP’s Dividend and an escrow fund, all culminating in a Presidential speech and a meeting with executives to which some Republicans are now calling a “shakedown”. In fact, one Republican, Joe Barton, went so far as to apologize to BP for the behavior of our administration. Then, he apologized for apologizing. It’s really disappointing to see what fools we have running our country. There’s plenty of blame to go around and while I agree the administration and politicians may have been out of line on a lot of statements and how the situation has been handled from a disaster preparedness standpoint, the dividend cut and establishment of a $20 Billion escrow fund certainly did provide some certainty to the situation that was sorely lacking previously. In fact, with each announcement, BP’s share price actually bounced 5% each time, moving from a loss to a gain on Wednesday. That being said, there’s still much uncertainty as to just when the leak will be capped and what the ultimate impact will be to wildlife and the way of life in the Gulf region.

With that backdrop, as always, there were some great articles this week in the financial blogosphere, so without further ado, here are some favs from some new sources, some usual sources and of course, some Yakezie:

Wealth Pilgrim: You Need a Budget Review

Weakonomics: Why Companies Buy Back Stock

Zen Habits: How to Avoid Becoming a Workaholic

Financial Samurai: Are You Overly Content? It Could be Detrimental to Your Job

Len Penzo: Private School Ripoff

Tax Vox: The Non-Jobs Bill

Wisebread: 6 Months as an Amazon Seller

Dividend Guy: The Problems Dividend Investors Face

Max Keiser: WSJ says Oil Spill Helps GDP. Let’s Just Line People Up and Shoot Them