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This Enron mess has the potential of Watergate. Before anyone dismisses this out of hand it is well to reflect on the way that mess was handled. It was a "third rate" burglary and then got worse and worse. Cheney had six meetings with Enron. He will have to release any records of those meetings as will Bush and all of his cabinet members. Otherwise, there will the endless charges of a "coverup." This is political reality. Look, I am on Bush's side and don't want this to damage his presidency but I'm also a political realist and know what can happen in these matters. And again, the Enron executives belong in federal prison. They have ruined the lives of thousands of innocent Enron employees who were denied the chance to get at their retirement funds. The American people will never stand for this.

The Enron employees that left their money in Enron stock were stupid. The price had already fallen from around $80/share earlier in the year to around $13/share when the freeze started, which is a 74% drop. The drop during the period that they could not sell was at the most $9. The damage was already done, and is a case of shoulda-woulda-coulda.

I live in Houston and all I heard from Enron employees before the fall was look at how valuable my Enron stock has become. If the government had set a limit of 10-20% of a company's stock in a retirement plan in 1996 all of the Enron employees would have complained that they could not participate in the increase in stock value.

I do think that Fastow & Skilling knew what was going down, Skilling is a micromanager. Lay & the Board didn't know the extent of Skillings game, Enron had over 200 lawyers plus Vinson & Elkins and Anderson signing off on everything they did. The Board would ask if everyone signed-off and would approve accordingly.

Lay was the ultimate businessman. He covered his bases with donations to whomever could assist his company in it's endevors.

First rule of investing, never leave all your eggs in one basket, diversify!