I've been thinking about the beauty of Enron.
Granted, our system is not perfect.
However, the US free market economy sure is sweet.
Think about Enron and the lessons learned (with no
new laws or regulations.)
The initial evidence suggests that there was a
conspiracy of corruption.
Who is responsible... and what happened to them?
1) shareholders -- invested in a company without
doing their homework... left the policing up to someone
other then themselves.
Now, they are left with nuttin'.
2) employees -- worked for a company either knowingly
doing the "wrong thing"... or not responsible enough
to ask important questions (thus remaining ignorant.)
Now, they have no job at Enron. (This is probably even more important
to what happened at Arthur Anderson. But, we'll get to
that in a minute.)
Of course, in this instance... their was outright fraud
by a few. So, some pity should be shown for the people
(in either of these "classes of people") that did not
break the law.
EXCEPT for employees who were also shareholders... and invested
large parts of their retirement account, etc. in Enron. These
people should be shown no pity. A diversified portfolio
would have reduced their risk to such an unfortunate event.
(and as a loan officer, I've seen far to many employees
who are invested solely in their employer's stock.)
3) those who did break the law. So far there have been
indictments, assets frozen and loss of jobs. Some have/
will be barred from ever serving for a publicly traded
company. Some will go to The Big House for a new
"extra wide pin-stripped suit."
Does that cover those people with Enron?
And, what about the company responsible for auditing Enron?
I know some people who were partners at Arthur Anderson...
ask them what happened when their company failed to do its
job of being "an independent" auditor. Not only did they
lose their job... they lost a huge financial investment...
as well as their career.
Thus, it would appear that the justification of the
free market economy is doing just fine on its own.
I hope all business matters work out as well as enron
appears to be.... hmmmm... perhaps we should offer
Arianna Huffington a few new titles instead of --
Wormbrains at the Trough: how ignorant investors
and employees are undermining America
or maybe...
Bulls and Bears at the Trough: how the free market
economy slaughters pigs
"Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed
and Political Corruption Are Undermining America"