Posted by Johnnymac 6:48 PM
I have a long poker post that I have written and need to edit before I post, but some quick thoughts on the Enron verdict -

1.) I still don't really think Ken Lay did anything wrong short of gross gross negligence, although I certainly was not privvy to all of the evidence that the jury saw and they obviously saw enough to find him guilty. I do think Jeff Skilling is guilty as sin and was in that mess up to his neck, despite his protests of ignorance. Nonetheless, I don't have any quibble with the verdicts - Enron was a huge company and it failed because a small group of people knowingly broke the law and violated their fiduciary duty to the shareholders. That small group of people needs to be punished for tremendously profound reasons, probably even moreso than some violent criminals whom we more often think of as being "true" criminals.

2.) I also agree that for many of the ex-employees and their families, this is a just verdict. These employees worked hard and invested their money in the company stock, as all the while that same small group of execs looted the company of cash. (The basic story of Enron is this: banks loaned money, (some) employees and (mostly the) executives took that money into their own pockets and then made up earnings reports to convince the banks to lend them more money to keep repeating the cycle every 3 months. Finally the banks caught on and quit loaning them money and the charade collapsed. That's it, it's that simple)

3.) Having said all that, I am sick and tired of hearing from all of these ex-Enron employees on TV and the radio complaining about how it's Ken Lay's and Jeff Skilling's fault that they went broke and, most commonly, lost their entire life savings because the stock lost all of its value. NEWS FLASH: Ken Lay didn't steal anyone's Vanguard password to prevent them from diversifying their 401(k)'s and Jeff Skilling didn't hack into anyone's Ameritrade account to keep buying the stock after it started falling like a rock. Anyone who has 100% of his net worth tied up in one stock is a fool, and anyone who is "a couple of years away from retirement" and is still invested in ANY equities, much 100% into just one stock, is an even bigger fool. Yes, it probably makes you feel better these two crooks are going to jail, but it's not their fault that you managed your money like a moron. I wish the media would quit putting these fools on TV.

Here is what the ex-employees should be mad about and it's the only thing that they really can blame these guys for: Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling and the rest of that group caused you to lose your job, at a company as cool as Enron was for a while there, and that's the only thing that they did to you. Everything else - stock market losses, retirement losses, etc etc - is your own damn fault.

4.) And finally, one more time, for any of the news media who might stumble onto this page from Google:

Sherron Watkins is NOT a whistleblower. Get that through your f*cking thick skulls. A true whistleblower actually tells someone outside of the organization about wrongdoing. Writing a whiny memo to the chief criminal because you are pissed that you're not getting a bigger share of the loot is not whistleblowing. By this logic, Mr Pink is also a whistleblower. Jeebus. I still don't understand why people worship that woman.


OK, enough Enron. I promise an actual poker point, soon.

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