[Dog Gone]

The sales by company insiders needs to be investigated, and I'm sure it will be. If the amount of selling was extremely high, and the people who sold had material inside information which hadn't been disclosed which would have negatively affected the price of the stock, they will face some serious problems.

On the other hand, selling stock by company executives is routine. Much of this is in the form of exercising stock options which are part of their compensation. Such sales by insiders are publicly reported and there are very strict rules about how they do it.

Much of this could well be innocent behavior by executives who had nothing to do with the Enron scandal. Enron stock had already peaked in price in late 2000. Selling stock as the California power crisis came under control might have been a rational investment decision by some of these executives.

I buy and sell stock in the company I work for all the time. I sell when I think the prospects look gloomy for the next few months and buy when I think things are turning around. There's nothing wrong, illegal or immoral about that. Especially since I'm not always right!

Enron employees were free to do the same thing with the Enron stock in their 401ks that were purchased with their contributions. I'm sure the ones who actively managed their accounts did so. Any Enron employee who held such stock when in slid from $90 to $13 per share before the two-week lockdown pretty much has nobody to blame but themselves. The lockdown cost them another few bucks, but only if they would have sold their stock during that lockdown period. It's peanuts compared to what they had already allowed to happen.

The restrictions on the company matching portion of their accounts prevented them from selling the free stock the company had given them. That's terribly unfortunate, but it's also a very common feature in these types of accounts. I would support a law outlawing that type of restriction.

[_Jim]

The sales by company insiders needs to be investigated,

I see no propblem with that - as it assures that the law in the future has 'teeth' and will make those that think about trading on insider information perhaps think twice and decide against it.

[_Jim]

The restrictions on the company matching portion of their accounts prevented them from selling the free stock the company had given them. That's terribly unfortunate, but it's also a very common feature in these types of accounts.

I would support a law outlawing that type of restriction.

Oh no ... government just go bigger and I just lost more rights ...

I see laws like *this* having the 'Rule of Un-intended Consequences' kick in - like the employer might simply remove this particular compensation item ...

What part of the meaning of 'Free Enterprise' has been lost - should it be changed to 'Mostly-free Enterprise' or '99% Free Enterprise' or 'Only 1% Socialism Enterprise'?