CBS News on Halliburton now

[buycitgo]

"seven billion dollar tab for getting taken for a ride"...from two whistleblowers

old story of 85K trucks abandoned for flat tires, etc.

NO MANIFESTS for what was being shipped/delivered

good story so far

[buycitgo]

1. oops....already over

thought it was just getting started

said charges were politically motivated

mentions that it's cost plus 2 percent, saying that it's to their advantage to artificially boost costs

duh

[salib]

4. Halliburton is trying to get out from under this one

By farming out KBR. Just like the asbestos liabilities. Heartless crew, I gotta say. Probably studied at the Bhopal School.

[Vincardog]

2. 2% cost plus contracts leave Haliburton with no incentive to cut costs

[aquart]

3. And Halliburton is looking to dump KBR now?

Awwww, didn't it work out like it was supposed to?

So, anybody want a billion dollar liability? Or weren't the overcharges that much?

[CatWoman]

5. Randi says the Carlyle Group will buy them, no problem

and because they are a "private" group, the selling price won't be disclosed.

[punpirate]

10. Well, KBR is a wholly-owned subsidiary...

... of Halliburton, which is a publicly-traded company, so, indeed, the sale price will be published, one way or another--either in their SEC filings, in their annual report, or both.

[buycitgo]

6. will Edwards mention the Dresser acquisition under Cheney's watch?

that would be the perfect response to Cheney's very predictably bringing up trial lawyers during their debate

you know about Dresser and its gigantic asbestos liablity suits....making Cheney's buying them a wonderful exanmple of the monuMENTALLY horrendous judgment these greedy pigs have used for years and years, judgment brought to the forefront in the single worst foreign policy decision in US History: invading Iraq

[aquart]

11. But if you know you're going to have the power to fix the courts ....

And make the laws........really, wouldn't that have made it a sweet deal?

I'll bet money that's how Cheney saw it.

[MSgt213]

7. Actually KBR is a 4 Billion dollar liability and investors wanted

Halliburton to get rid of KBR for a long time now. Dick screwed Halliburton trying to make a quick buck, but when you are playing with big money like that you got to be smarter then 10th grader or you going to lose big time.

[AndyTiedye]

8. To Lose Money on Unlimited Cost-Plus Contracts

would seem to take all the business acumen of, uh, George DuubYa Boosh.

[Parche]

9. halliburton

Just announced they recieved those phony documents from Dick Cheney

[Zookeeper]

12. Yesterday Al Franken interviewed....

an economist who just returned from Iraq (Naomi ?something?, I think). She said a major objection that many Iraqis have to our presence in Iraq, is that all of the reconstruction is contracted out to anyone BUT Iraqis. She mentioned finding out from Iraqi business people that Iraqi Cement factories could produce cement bomb barriers for $100 a piece; instead our tax dollars are paying to import barriers at $1,000 a pop.

She also said there is a shortage of construction equipment available to the Iraqis to rebuild and the one time she did see a giant crane, it was being used to put up a billboard advertising some Saudi product for sale.

[dennis4868]

13. IT'S CBS.....

it cant be true....:-(

[never cry wolf]

14. Contracting!

Is a nasty business. I am an architect and I see shit first hand.

Every general contractor has multiple sub-contractors, and these subs themselves have sub-sub contractors and suppliers and sub-suppliers, and my experience is in the private sector with $500K to $4-5M projects with, for the most part, contractors I consider honorable.

Even in this sheltered universe it is all about horse swapping. A GC (general contractor) has multiple jobs going at any one time, as well as potential for more. The subs are all beholden to the GC if they want more work out of them. If there is a job where the GC is tight on profit margin or it is a competitive bid it is not at all uncommon for the GC to go to his subs and ask for them to hsave their prices and they will make it up to them on other jobs where the cash is flowing by allowing them and their sub-subs to rape the client.

Shyte, there are books and seminars for contractors on how to bid a job with an eye for the low bid but cashing in on change orders due to finding slight conflicts in the contract documents.

2% my ass! Every one of halliburton's subs, and all their sub-subs are marking up outrageously because they have a blank check, mark my words!