Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 13 January 2002

Various big media television networks ^ | 13 January, 2002 | Various Self-Serving Politicians and Big Media Screaming

[Alas Babylon!]

Guest lineup posted yesterday by FReeper dickmc.

[txrangerette]

I saw all of Evans & understood his answers. He turned the tenor of Tim's inuendo back around on Tim. A guy in Oregon (not Colorado) gave Don a check to the campaign for $38 & ? cents. Told Don, quote, "I want to be proud of America again". So he was supporting Bush with all he could spare from his tight family budget. Don even recalled his name! And told Timmy that all of Bush's high $$$ donors were told upfront that they could expect American pride back and not any favors, etc. So if they hoped for favors, etc., THEY HAD THE WRONG CANDIDATE! Evans turned it all around on old Timmy boy, IMO. Bush came off heroic not sleazy. Go Don go! (Gotta love that Midland TX guy.)

[Texan4W]

>>>Commerce Secretary Donald Evans on MTP was abysmal.

He sounds just like an honest man, to me.

[Sueann]

Had Bush told them to sell - it would have been useless - the funds were frozen due to Enron's decision to change administrators of the 401k plan. Convenient as hell, I'd say!

[Sueann]

"fan club"

Count me in - especially since I am also of Scottish descent like Brit!

[Sueann]

From what I've read, the SEC is already in a full investigation.

[Sueann]

Leiberman only knows how to play the middle - he waffles and wags until it makes your head swim. He has to get soundly defeated this time so he will GO AWAY and stop trying to believe he can be president.

[Sueann]

An excellent and interesting observation!

[gov_bean_ counter]

How about a redux on the Hillary Clinton quote about undercapitalized companies?

[Sueann]

Enron began in Feb of 2001 searching for a new administrator for their 401k. They waited until October to make the change (a little tooooo convenient for me); during this change-over period, the funds are frozen until the new administrator takes over. The timing was perfect - it gave the top guys time to get their money and run and left the employees with nothing - and no way to get out because the funds were frozen.

[Wphile]

Funds were only frozen for about two weeks - end of October/beginning of November. I believe the stock fell about $3 during that time frame. The announcement was made in February of 2001 that they would change administrators but the plan wasn't frozen at that time.

[Sueann]

"Enron employees were NOT required to keep their stock"

You're right, and that's true! You see - the funds were frozen (because of an administrator of the plan changeover) and the employees could not sell their stock. Only the top employees could do any selling. It's not fair, but until the rules are changed, it's legal.

My question is: is there any proof the Enron higher ups did this on purpose in order to keep the employees from selling??

[Wphile]

Please see prior post. Funds only frozen for about 2 weeks: end of October/early November.

[RobFromGa]

Did these employees sell their stock the first opportunity they had when the two-week "freeze" was lifted?

If not, then what makes you think they would have sold during the two week freeze? Or the month prior to the freeze for that matter?

If the company officers did anything illegal, they shoudl be totally proosecuted to the full extent of the law, but if not, stocks can be risky and "don't put all your eggs in one basket" comes to mind.

[angry elephant]

We all know how W supports the Kyoto agreement. This is so pathetic. Ken Lay got a whole lot more from the Dems for a whole lot less dough than he certainly got from W.

On the surface it appears that Enron donated more to the Republicans, but since Enron did so well during Klintoon's reign, they probably paid the Klintoons big kickbacks. Probably the Klintoon documents were the first to be shredded.

[jwalsh07]

Enron is going nowhere. The investigation I'm interested in is how Clinton, Rubin and their Wall Street Leftist pals managed to create and exploit a dot com bubble in order to get rich and prop up a corrupt administration.

Then maybe Clinton, Rubin and the politicos can cover some of my losses, eh? :-}

Mind you, I'm not holding my breath and I never put many dot com nuts in my investment basket but a whole lot of people did.

[Maceman]

"You can't blame this one on Clinton. Nice try though."

That's basically been her standard response since 1993.

[Sueann]

I agree with you both that the employees were not paying attention!

[nonliberal]

Once it comes out that Enron made massive conributions to Dems as well, the whole thing will disappear.

[Howlin]

Actually, that's not true; the accounts were only locked from about the middle of October until the first week of November (they are disputing the actual time). Other than that, the employees could have sold any stock they bought voluntarily (not company matched) any time from the day they got it until the day the company went belly up.

[Torie]

The Dems tend to seem to have a rather predatory attitude towards businesses that need government help, don't they? Clinton nursed 100K out of Enron while taking a rather self started undue interest in the India venture, plus whatever he charged Lay for staying in the Lincoln bedroom, unless that was thrown in as a lagniappe.