That’s right. The global financial oligarchy intends to abolish traditional government altogether and replace it with…a cartel of megabanks. People would not be “governed” by states but “managed” — or, in a return of bad old slavery, owned outright — by corporations. In fact, the definition of “government” is about to be changed: it will soon designate a corporation whose purpose is controlling people. Law applies only to the peons; the “superior” people whose money is their essence, of course, are above law altogether. And even then, governments may end up being rendered obsolete by “personnel management corporations”: your official identity will not be your “nationality” (i.e. your ownership by a nation-state).

The implication is that in the near future people will be bought and sold exactly like trading cards, with their near-worthless “commons” and coveted “valuables”. In fact, professional athletes are treated in exactly such fashion by their teams. Soon, everybody will be treated like that, once the banksters get all those pesky governments out of the way. Personnel will not even be “employed” — that term implies that they are independent rational actors who rent their labor to employers in return for payment in wages. Unions, which will soon be forbidden, force corporations to think like that. Soon workers will be bought, sold, and traded; if they are or become “defective” for any reason however arbitrary

Meanwhile, other BP officials insisted that Mr Hayward remained in charge of the immediate crisis which has seen millions of gallons of oil continue to threaten the Gulf Coast.

The firm previously announced that Mr Dudley would lead the long-term response once the leak had been stopped.

Latest estimates suggest 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day are continuing to pour from the ruptured well.

The Swedish chairman admitted the oil rig explosion was a “tragic one” which “should never have happened”.

mbattled BP has come under fresh pressure after one of its partners said the British oil giant should shoulder all the financial burden for the Gulf of Mexico spill.

Anadarko Petroleum, which owns a quarter of the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well, has refused to accept any blame for the explosion that killed 11 workers and sparked America’s worst environmental disaster.