US oil slick could trigger 'double-dip' recession: analyst

[The Northerner]

NEW YORK (AFP) – The massive oil slick threatening the Gulf of Mexico's coastline could wreck the US economy's fragile recovery and lead to a "double-dip" recession, an investment firm warned on Monday.

A market commentary from Cumberland Advisors said the bill from the Deepwater Horizon disaster may ultimately run into hundreds of billions of dollars and leave an economic impact that will be felt for a generation.

Cumberland chief investment officer David Kotok said in a commentary titled "Oil Slickonomics" that the spill had left three likely scenarios for the future: "bad, worse, and ugliest."

Under the worst case scenario, it would take months to plug the ruptured well spewing an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil into the sea every day, Kotok said, leaving a clean-up operation which would take a decade to complete.

"The Gulf becomes a damaged sea for a generation. The oil slick leaks beyond the western Florida coast, enters the Gulfstream and reaches the eastern coast of the United States and beyond," Kotok wrote. "Monetary cost is now measured in the many hundreds of billions of dollars."

Kotok argued that regardless of when the well is plugged, the disaster would lead to an increase in federal deficit spending measured in "tens, and maybe hundreds, of billions as emergency appropriations are directed at larger and larger efforts to clean up this mess."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100503/bs_afp/usblastoilenergypollutioneconomy_20100503175906

[NJmaverick]

1. I know the Republicans are hoping that's the case

sadly there are many here at DU hoping for the same thing.

[theophilus]

2. Or not. n/t

[aquart]

3. Tax the rich to keep us afloat.

We have left no other way.

[damntexdem]

4. Or it could be an environmental disaster of such magnitude as to make ...

a mere recession seem like child's play.

[CountAllVotes]

5. agree

this is a very bad situation and it is not going to get any better any time soon.

The gulf has yet to recover from Katrina and now this.

This will most certainly not go away in my lifetime. I am afraid it could keep spreading and spreading as I believe that BP is lying their asses off as they run around handing out checks to people to shut them up. :mad:

I HOPE BP (BRITISH PETROLEUM) goes belly up and finds themselves with lawsuits aplenty. They deserve nothing, nothing at all but grief and prison for their criminal acts committed against the American people! :mad:

:kick: