The seed money for Bubba Gump Shrimp Company came from $25,000 in profits from ping-pong paddle sales. But many other small business that rely on the Gulf’s natural resources don’t have this kind cash flow and are going to take a huge hit from the BP oil spill.
In a gloomy report called “Oil Slickonomics,” David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors ranks the “bad, worse, and ugliest” scenarios.
“Thousands of small and independent businesses as well as larger public companies in tourism are hurt here. This is not just about the source of half the nation’s shrimp. That is already a casualty. It’s also about the bank loans for the $200,000 shrimp boat and the house the boat owner and/or his employees live in and the fact that this shock piles on a fragile financial system that is trying to recover from a three-year financial crisis. … the $12.5 billion loss estimate is only a starter.”
To put this in perspective, Hurricane Katrina cost the Louisiana and Mississippi economy an estimated $100 billion. Politico says the White House is in “panic” over the spill. How will son-of-the-bayou Melancon handle it? And is Senate Democrats proposal to raise the liability limit for oil companies from $75 million to $10 billion a legislative lock?
And most importantly, what would Willie Talos do?
The following maps from LSU show the already battered regional employment picture in (1) mining, quarrying, oil/gas extraction, and (2) agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting.
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