There's nothing funny about the hostage situation off the coast of Somalia, where the captain of the U.S. cargo ship that was hijacked yesterday is still being held by four pirates. But this time you have to believe the pirates had no idea what they were getting into. Could the first known case of a hijacked crew fighting back finally scare these crazy buccaneers into reining in their operations?

One energy consultancy thinks so. This is a tongue-in-cheek note that the firm sent out to clients today, passed on from a friend:

Somali pirate update – Downgrade from Accumulate to Sell.  Meaningfully lower estimates of 2009/2010 earnings and change in business model/execution prompts re-rating.  We loved oil tanker strategy (capture valuable cargo, demand ransom, get paid).  Recent four man effort to seize container ship is questionable (pirate manual says this is 6-10 man job).  Abandoning ship in lifeboat with ship captain as only booty/hostage seems downright foolish.  Avoid.