[snopercod]

An article ahead of it's time...

[lonestar]

ahead of it's time bump

[independentmind]

. The most ludicrous role being cast for the corporation, however, is that of "jungle - capitalist - price - gouger - getting - its - comeuppance" - the role written for Enron by California Gov. Gray Davis & Company.

I'm all for being patient and letting the facts tell the story about what happened at Enron. However, to dismiss the events occuring at Enron as isolated is naive. Also, the Wall Street Journal had a front page artice this week on some of the new revelations about Enron's activities in California. Last time I checked, the WSJ was not a bastion of liberal, anti-capitalists.

[randita]

How refreshing to hear the truth for a change!

This article deftly refutes not only the ridiculous charges of the Davis flunkies, but also the assertions of quite a few newspapers who of late have refused to let facts get in the way of spin and lies.

Thanks. This is a keeper!

[gov_bean_ counter]

We aren't. But the intellectual gymnastics by which some are trying to tag the company as the font of all troubles and a poster boy of laissez faire is beyond irksome. The smoke has yet to clear from the economic wreckage. Let's wait and see what an investigation of those curious books finds before lessons are drawn.

Any analysis of the fall of Enron that fails to consider the circumstances surrounding its rise to prominence in the energy industry is shallow at best and intellectually fraudulent at worst. Enron's rise to the "big time" was facilitated by a series of favorable actions by the Clinton Administration (one published report said Clinton and Company acted affirmatively on 18 of 20 Enron requests for loans, grants and legislative initiatives) and the hope that the Kyoto Treaty would be enacted giving them a monopoly in a "new energy industry". The accounting gimmicks were only an attempt to buy time until Enron got "their man" in the White House. And make no mistake about it, Al Gore was that man. Forget the Enron donations to Bush. Every serious gambler bets both sides in a horse race. Enron needed Gore. What he would not be able to produce legislatively, he would accomplish by Executive Order. Remember, "Stroke of the pen, law of the land...Kinda cool". When the election did not go Enron's way, they knew they were in trouble. Thankfully, the Bush Administration rebuffed Ken Lay's overtures. After that, Enron's officials started bailing out. They knew it was over.

In short, Enron failed because the income side was based circumstances that were not sustainable and economic/environmental assumptions that were not viable.

Shame of many for not realizing this. This is not to excuse those on Wall Street, government types at SEC, ect. who did not do their homework and expose the sham that was Enron. There is much blame to go around. However, any attempt exposing problems should start at the beginning.

[Free the USA]

Great Post the best analysis of the Enron/Cali debacle yet.

[Dog Gone]

I remember Jerry Taylor, one of the authors, from some earlier articles on California's situation. He nails it again in this one.

Thanks for finding this.

[Liz]

....the obvious question arises: If Enron were such an effective price-gouger and ruthless pirate,
how is it that the company went belly-up less than a year away from the scene of the crime?.......

Dumb question. Enron wore several hats all at the same time. Enron's collapse was the sum of its parts.
The day of reckoning came when Enron couldn't explain away its accounting gymnastics, like hiding its
colossal debt offshore - the cynical, maybe criminal, idea of CFO Fastow. Enron had many balls in the air.
It stepped out of its original role as an energy trader to start other trading ventures, ending in bad schemes.