.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Dear Mr. Berko:

Dear P.T.:

Great Scott, what timing. Yes, the stock could crash to $20, and there’s a 37 percent degree of probability that it will, but I strongly doubt it. Frankly, I think the shares either have bottomed out or are within 10 percent of their bottom. But hold it and consider owning another 200 shares. Read on.

BP plc (BP-$37.08) has fallen more than 20 points in the past five weeks, and its $3.36 dividend now yields an impressive 9.1 percent.

I don’t like BP. I never did, never will, and I can’t explain why. I’ve always had the same gut feeling about Citigroup. I’ve never owned the stock and have never recommended it (except as a rank speculation) and doubt I ever will.

Even though I don’t like BP, I think the current crisis that crashed the share price makes this a compelling speculative buy. BP is the third-largest oil company on the planet, just behind Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. BP vastly increased its size in 1998 via the purchase of American Oil Co. (AMOCO) and, two years later, through the purchase of Atlantic Richfield, or ARCO.

BP’s revenues, earnings and dividend growth are impressive, as is the stock’s potential in the coming couple of years. So I think the old Wall Street adage still holds true: “The best time to buy a stock is when everyone is selling.” If folks don’t want to buy BP, I can’t stop them. But I can recommend that you consider a 200-share speculative purchase at the current $37 price, collect a sweet 9.1 percent and wait a year or so for the share price to return to the $60 level. It’s probably a no-brainer.

This catastrophe makes people ask: “How could a disaster like this be allowed to happen?” Of course, all of us are quick to put the blame on BP, the most obvious target. However, you know that never in a million years did BP ever imagine an accident like this could happen.

However, it did happen, because a whole confluence of events occurred to make it happen. Though the buck stops with BP, Transocean Ltd. (RIG-$47.12), Halliburton Co. (HAL-$22.73) and employees at the U.S. Department of the Interior also shoulder the blame. RIG’s blowout valve failed to work; HAL’s inferior concrete failed to hold; and employees at the Interior Department were allegedly smoking dope at the switch and watching porn.

Former Sen. Ken Salazar, the flunky who runs the 71,000-employee Department of the Interior, wouldn’t know an oil drill from a dental drill. Like most elected congresspeople, Salazar has a law degree, and his best business experience was running a Dairy Queen with his wife. In 2006, while a U.S. senator, Salazar voted to end protections that would limit offshore drilling on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Where oh where, dear God in heaven, do we get these people?

But since this was all done under BP’s imprimatur, the buck stops at the desk of Tony “the Doctor” Hayward, the reigning CEO.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, Fla. 33429 or e-mail him at malber@adelphia.net. ©2010 Creators.com