EagleTed:Maybe I'm just insane, but I fail to see any connection between Haliburton and the National Debt. Perhaps those sane enough to think there is a connection would lower themselves to inform me.
I'll not question your wisdom in questioning your own sanity, Ted, for it seems to me you must be nuts to be asking me rather than doing your own research. The first hit I got when I searched Google news for information about "Haliburton" brought me this:
"An Ode To Croney Capitalism
The Iraq invasion was launched in March 2003 and on May 1, President George W Bush stood on the flight deck of the USS Lincoln in front of a banner that said "Mission Accomplished". He may have jumped the gun.
It depends on what the mission was. The stated objectives were to destroy Iraq's (non-existent) arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, overthrow Saddam and replace him with a real, live democracy.
Iraq possesses over 10 per cent of known oil reserves. Establishing a friendly regime would secure those resources.
That mission isn't accomplished. Iraq is still in chaos. Iraqi crude production is still 40 per cent below pre-sanction (1990) levels. The US and the world are in recession. Oil prices that have risen 300 per cent play a large role in that.
The stagnation is reflected in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has gained only 30 per cent in five years. The CAGR of 5.5 per cent is well below the DJIA's 20-year trend growth rate of 9 per cent.
For some businesses though, the occupation was indeed mission accomplished. One beneficiary was the oil industry. The share prices of integrated producers like Shell have 5-year CAGR of 12 per cent or more.
Another gainer has been the logistics industry. Here profits are unevenly distributed. Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) won most of the reconstruction and logistical support contracts in Iraq. At that time, KBR was a subsidiary of Haliburton.
Haliburton's share price was $10 in May 2003 and its $53 now -- a gain of 430 per cent. KBR went public in November 2006 with Haliburton selling 20 per cent of its stake. The IPO was at $17 -- KBR is $31 now, an 82 per cent return.
There was controversy about how those Iraqi contracts were awarded. There has been controversy about KBR's modus operandi of using shell companies to hire cheap off-shore workers.
The spotlight has been continuously on KBR because Dick Cheney was President and CEO of Haliburton from 1996 to 2000. Bush's CV also includes a long stint in the oil industry.
Nobody is accusing the President, the Veep, or their immediate families of being direct beneficiaries of the windfalls. But friends, former colleagues and campaign contributors did unquestionably benefit. The words being bandied around are variations on "crony capitalism". That is something most Indians will understand instinctively. "
http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?autono=327875&leftnm=4&subLeft=0&chkFlg=
Please don't misunderstand me. I'm willing to help but I'd like to see you invest a little effort yourself. Can you find any other evidence of a connection?
