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Bush aides say firm was beyond help WASHINGTON -- Senior members of the Bush administration said Sunday that they did not intervene to help bankrupt energy giant Enron Corp. and did not alert President Bush or the public because the company's problems were public knowledge. In an effort to insulate the administration from a fast-growing scandal, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill tried to dispel suggestions that the administration might have tried to help the company because of its political connections. Company executives contributed to Bush's campaign and those of dozens of Republicans and Democrats in Congress. ...

LTCM, a hedge fund above suspicion IBRAHIM WARDE Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of L e modèle anglo-saxon en question, Paris, Economica, 1997 Crony capitalism used to be cited as the underlying cause of the 1997 crisis in Asia. Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand were model pupils of the IMF (1), they had got all their fundamentals right (inflation, unemployment, growth), so there had to be some other explanation. The blame was laid on the kind of capitalism practised in those countries, where a closed, secretive and incestuous elite held absolute sway over politics, the economy ...

CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS MONEY IN POLITICS ALERT Vol. 6, #37 January 14, 2001 tel: 202-857-0044, fax: 202-857-7809 email: info@crp.org, web: www.opensecrets.org The Enron Investigation: A Look at the Company's Lobbying in 2001 By Vikki Kratz Energy giant Enron Corp. spent $825,000 on lobbying for the first six months of 2001, according to the lobbying disclosure report Enron filed with the House of Representatives.* The bankrupt company lobbied on a gamut of issues, including energy bills, appropriations and several broadband bills that would affect the company's broadband subsidiary. Enron also lobbied for a repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax, ...

Monday January 14 5:46 PM ET Bush Team May Have Feared Enron Aid By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The meltdown of Enron Corp. threatened broader financial problems, but administration officials chose to do nothing - even after being reminded by Enron that the government intervened in 1998(when Rober Rubin was Treasury Secretary and Clinton was worrying about a "daliance" in the Oval Office with an intern) to prevent the collapse of a big fund for wealthy investors. Fears of a conflict of interest involving a big Bush donor may have led to the inaction, analysts ...

THE HINDU August 26, 1997 SECTION: News; Pg. 14, Col. a HEADLINE: Enron's 'gift' to Clinton's party BYLINE: Sridhar Krishnaswami BODY: WASHINGTON, Aug. 25. In another interesting addition to the Democratic Party's fund- raising mess, Time magazine is reporting that four days before the Government in New Delhi gave final approval for the Enron Corporation's $ 3 billion venture in India, the company gave the Democratic National Committee $ 100,000. The latest issue of Time says that Enron denied that its "gift" was a repayment for Mr.Bill Clinton's attention. In "The Scoop" section of the magazine, writer Michael Weisskopf reports ...

nron's collapse was bad. From what we know so far, what Enron's executives did was very bad. Arthur Andersen screwed up. Shareholders and employees were screwed. Congress should investigate — and they are. The attorney general should recuse himself — and he has. The Justice Department should investigate — and it is. The SEC should scramble their F-18s full of ace accountants. Their C-141 Starlifters should drop a whole division of their "Green Eyeshades," elite auditors, over downtown Houston, armed with the latest slide rules and graphing calculators — and all of that that is happening as we speak. ...

Robert Theodore Knalur P.O. Box 10083 Detroit, MI 48501 January 14, 2002 Senator Joseph Leiberman 706 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 RE: Enron Investigation Dear Senator Leiberman, I watched your Sunday morning appearance on Face the Nation with intense interest. Inasmuch as I own a fair amount of Enron stock in my SEP/IRA, I’m sure you can understand my curiosity relative to your investigation. Knowing you to be an honorable man, I feel secure that you will diligently pursue the below listed matters in an effort to determine what part, if any, these matters contributed to the collapse ...

Although there is absolutely no appearance of impropriety in the Bush administration regarding the collapse of Enron, the national media and the Democrats are doing everything they can to tie the name Enron to the name Bush. Newsweek reports, "It was one of America's biggest, best-connected companies. Then it all fell apart for Enron and its shareholders. The shockwaves rock George W. Bush's Washington." Huh? George W. Bush's Washington? What about Tom Daschle's Washington? There was mucho dinero given to Democrats, as well. But even Joe Lieberman is jumping in on this one, saying that it is "... a source ...

The New York Times February 19, 1995, Sunday, Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section 3; Page 1; Column 2; Business/Financial Desk HEADLINE: How Washington Inc. Makes a Sale BYLINE: By DAVID E. SANGER DATELINE: WASHINGTON BODY: IT is 24 hours before a trade mission of two dozen top corporate executives and government officials departs for India, and inside the Commerce Department's sleek new "Advocacy Center," teams of trade specialists are wrestling with the biggest of the last-minute crises: Are India's top leaders ready to make the final concessions needed to close a billion-dollar deal that will allow a consortium of ...

Why does Henry Waxman get so much attention? It's not hard to imagine a scene like this, late last week in the office of California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman: "Turns out Lay called O'Neill and Evans in late October when Enron was going down," a staffer says. "Then Whalley called Fisher a bunch of times, clearly wanting help. We've got a statement ready to go hitting the White House for granting special favors to a big campaign contributor. We'll quote the congressman saying it's 'deeply troubling.'" "Yeah, but the problem is, it looks like nobody did anything," another staffer says. ...

America's biggest bankrupt has become a Beltway treasure chest in a way its executives never intended. Critics of President Bush would love to see Enron Corp. become the Texan's Whitewater - even if it turns out Bush did nothing wrong. Democrats are drooling over the chance to tar Bush with the brush of scandal that spattered a legion of Clinton administration figures. But Bush's opponents could find it very difficult, if not impossible, to make an Enron scandal stick. For one thing, it appears that repeated Enron phone calls to top officials did nothing to spur a rescue attempt last ...

<p>WASHINGTON — The scandal-making machinery is gearing up. Many of the elements of Washington controversies past are in place in the controversy over the collapse of energy giant Enron: a big donor who's cozy with a president, suggestions of favors sought, conflicts of interest and recusals, shredded documents, subpoenas and endless political spin. Even some of the lawyers' names are familiar to students of Whitewater, the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the Florida election recount. Armed with all that, some Democrats initially were poised to pounce with charges that Enron and Kenneth Lay, the company's CEO and President Bush's top campaign patron, were in a position to get special treatment from Bush administration officials. "If there was any, any involvement because of the incredible help the Bush campaign got from Enron here, it will be ... devastating," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.</p>

GOP image at risk in Enron saga As probes of White House dealings with firm grow, the perception of cozy ties to business may hurt Bush most. coziness with business, biggest risk may be with voters. For Bush, a big one is that more voters will see him - and his party - as too closely aligned with big business. WASHINGTON - The facts of the Enron case as revealed so far may not be the biggest danger to the White House. Nor is it the investigative drumbeat of eight congressional committees and the Justice Department pursuing the case. Rather, ...

PBS Frontline: Ken Lay Interview Excerpt from a good, and lengthy, interview-- "It isn't true that you're the closet secretary of energy?" "I am not the closet anything. ... This administration has some very, very capable people, particularly in the energy area, starting with the secretary of energy but also people like Dick Cheney and Don Evans as well as the president himself. ..." "When we interviewed Vice President Cheney, I asked him, "Had you met with any CEOs of any energy companies in the preparation of a national energy policy?" "... Over the years, Vice President Cheney and I ...

<p>TONY SNOW, GUEST HOST: There are probes aplenty into the final months of Enron and the grim financial fate that befell many of the company's investors and employees. Inquiring minds are asking about such things as insider trading, failure to disclosure financial information, conspiracy to commit fraud and destruction of documents and a lot more.</p>

* A couple of weeks ago Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle launched the Democratic attack on President George W. Bush with a speech in Washington in which he blamed the "Bush Recession" on the "Bush tax cuts."* Sidebar: A seatmate on Friday told me he had been in a meeting where that Daschle speech was the topic of conversation. "Address," said one person, "not speech." "And he used a TelePrompTer," said another, "not notes."* All right. New rule. If you quote from Mullings you have to CITE Mullings!* End Sidebar.* Other Democratic leaders: A. Were perfectly happy to let Daschle ...

Recent revelations about Enron's extensive political contributions have been portrayed as impugning the integrity of the Bush administration and bolstering the case for campaign finance reform. However, upon closer scrutiny, it is apparent that Enron's bevy of political contributions provided the company little political power when it most needed it. Thus, far from proving the need for campaign finance reform, the Enron debacle illustrates that political contributions may be one of the worst investments a business can make. The real lesson from this fiasco may be that company shareholder representatives and boards of directors should be more skeptical of the ...

Does anyone believe that it is a coincidence that Enron imploded so quickly after George W. Bush secured the White House? For the eight long years of the Clinton administration, the Enron tumor metastatized. Everyone knew what the rules were under Clinton. Pay the Man, and the executive branch would look the other way. Pay the Man enough, and he would use the executive branch to "help" your business endeavors. Don't pay him at all? Well, everyone knew what happened to that computer dweeb, Gates, who thought he was somehow above it all. Clinton's "Justice" Department made sure EVERYONE got ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A week before filing for bankruptcy protection, energy giant Enron Corp. donated $100,000 to the Democratic Party committee that helps Senate candidates, campaign finance reports show. The company, which had given 90 percent of its money to Republicans this year before the Democratic donations, also has hired high-profile Washington lawyer Robert Bennett, whose past clients include President Clinton. "Donations of this type reflect certain political realities which are followed by all major corporations," Bennett said Wednesday in explaining Enron's $50,000 checks on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Enron filed for Chapter ...

Sunday, Jan. 13, 2002 10:25 a.m. EST Enron 'Scandal' Should Prompt Indictments - for the Clintons No one can say President Bush hasn't tried. As part of his campaign pledge to move the country beyond eight years of partisan squabbling over Clinton-era corruption, he never mentioned Whitewater or Monicagate or any other of the dozen or so gates that metastasized during the 1990s. br pAfter he was elected, Bush gave his silent approval when, the day before he took office, independent counsel Robert Ray announced he wouldn't prosecute President Clinton for blatant and repeated instances of perjury before a federal ...