Re: Number 4

Why would anyone self-regulate who is not 100% liable? You did know Big Oil has limited liability, right?

Yes, I did, but it doesn't matter. If a corporation believes there is virtually no chance of something like this happening, at least some of them statistically are bound to take the risk to cut corners rather shell out money to meet regulations. That makes a disaster like this one all but inevitable. The gov't in this case was not too small (nor too big); it simply wasn't doing its job. The regulators were allowing BP to fill out the regulation forms themselves in pencil, then going over what BP wrote in with pen and signing it. A lot of that hands-off attitude goes hand-in-hand with the 'less gov't' philosophy that accompanied Bush's presidency.