On many days the market loses $60 billion in equity value in seconds. I lost money invested in Enron stock.
The only people significantly harmed were the people who unintelligently overweighted Enron stock in their portfolios.
several thousand people lost their jobs
Thousands of people lose jobs every single day, often due to unintelligent or self-serving decisions made by executives. I've lost jobs myself.
What Americans do when they lose a job is find a new one, not cry about it. Employment is not guaranteed in a free society.
if you think that the only people affected by Enron were the ones who had all of their money in Enron, then you are extremely naive
Millions of people, indeed all Americans, were slightly affected by the failure of this large corporation.
The only people who experienced a severe impact were those who placed the bulk of their fortunes in Enron.
I agree with everything you are saying. But what is your point? Do you think that Skilling should have just gotten a slap on the wrist? Skilling could have gone to the prosecutors and worked out a deal just like Fastow did.