“Megacorporations are the superpowers of the Shadowrun universe, with the largest having far more political, economic, and military power than even the most powerful nation-states.” -Shadowrun RPG

Coming so quickly on the heels of the Goldman Sacs hearings, the lack of ‘teeth’ in Congress’ dealing with large corporations has become glaringly evident.  BP seems to be able to control the flow of information, dogmatically adhere to their mantra about paying “legitimate claims” (without ever defining that phrase despite the insistence of Congress), and Transocean has already claimed over $400 million in insurance while seeking to cap their own liability claims at a paltry $27 million.

It seems that Salazar’s insistence about the government “keeping their boot on the throat of BP” is not only hyperbole, but a pitiful attempt to bolster the facade that the government is somehow in control of the situation.  If they cannot bring the companies to heel, who can we turn to?