Part II: Aided and Abetted
"There are supposed to be checks and balances. Lawyers are supposed to say no. Bankers are supposed to say no. Accountants are supposed to say no.
"No one said no."
--documentary, "Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room," spoken by an analyst.
And Ben F. Glison, Jr, the treasurer, portrayed an Emperor's New Clothes culture, where no one was willing to challenge the rule-bending and recklessness as the company's executives charged into one ill-considered business line after another.
--"In Enron Case, a Verdict on an Era," Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times, May 26, 2006.
In the documentary, Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room, bankers, lawyers, and accountants detailed exactly how bankers, lawyers, and accountants literally aided and abetted Enron in its various schemes, either trusting blindly or simply turning a blind eye to abuses it knew was going on but chose to ignore because they were making so much money themselves. Now they, too, have lost jobs, been convicted of their crimes, and/or gone bankrupt.
One former Enron executive said simply, "There had to be complicity all across the board, because it was all too easy."
The thing is, we've seen the same sort of complicity in this Republican rubber-stamp Congress. As I detailed in my posts, King George and the Masters of the Universe (May 12, 2006) and The High (Personal) Costs of Corruption (April 30, 2006), the Republican Congress has acted with appalling impunity, tossing rules and centuries-old protocol out the window, introducing complicated legislation with no time for study and ramming it through past midnight without debate, and finally tossing it up to the White House, where this president then signs it without veto--ever--but then attaches "signing statements" in which he pledges to do pretty much whatever he damn well pleases, no matter what the law he just signed says.
Consequently, the earmarks and reckless credit-card spending for pork barrel projects of this Congress has mushroom-clouded into a nightmare deficit and national debt with no end in sight; our country has been stampeded into a self-start war for the first time in its history, and the civil rights of Americans have been trampled beneath the hooves of this administration's arrogance, even as the Congressmen (mostly men) themselves were growing greedier and greedier, breaking laws with wild abandon and stuffing their back pockets with the overflow of lucre, all while polishing that God-fearing, flag-waving image because, you know, image is all.
Meanwhile, this president packed political cronies into important positions in just about every major government office in existence, regardless of their experience or expertise in the area. With his swagger and strut, he made it clear that he'd just as soon get rid of all government and privatize the whole country.
The business executives who took over government offices had no idea how to run government or get anything accomplished, nor did any of them seem to care. On the day Katrina struck landfall, after dozens of dire warnings from weather experts, the director of Homeland Security, which was now the umbrella agency overseeing disaster relief, went off to a conference on the bird flu.
God, as they say, is in the details.
Attention to the mundane details of business…appeared to be almost second thoughts among the senior ranks of the company, if thought about at all. Instead, the focus centered on marketing the image, not only of the company, but of the senior executives.
--"In Enron, a Verdict on an Era," New York Times.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the political hacks in charge of crucial positions at places like NASA and the Food and Drug Administration, set about stifling all scientific inquiry and literally blacking out unfavorable reports, in order to bolster the political image of its CEO, George W. Bush. (See my post, Political(izing) Science, March 27, 2006.)
And while Congress and this president have squandered a $300 billion surplus left by President Clinton, driven the budget into a half-trillion-dollar deficit and an $8 trillion debt, so Enron, too, chose to push closer and closer to the edge.
Putting new labels on the old wine didn't change the financial underpinnings of the business…Enron chose instead to maintain a credit rating just notches above junk, apparently in the belief that a bad day would never arrive.
--"In Enron, a Verdict on an Era," New York Times
I really think there is a connection between the crooked and corrupt corporate culture that allowed a black mold like Enron to grow, and this administration and this Congress's methods. So many of its highest-flying Icaruses…have now crashed into the sun and melted, such as Scooter Libby and Tom DeLay.
That may go a long way toward explaining how corporate America became infused in the late 1990's by what appeared to be a near endless amount of greed and criminality, leading to scandal at an array of corporate giants, from Enron to Worldcom, from Adelphia to Healthsouth and Tyco.
--ibid (and we could add the words at the end of that sentence, "and Congress and the White House.")
"It's the corporate culture itself. With all the perks…you can lose your soul."
--documentary, "Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room."
"No one said no."
--documentary, "Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room," spoken by an analyst.
And Ben F. Glison, Jr, the treasurer, portrayed an Emperor's New Clothes culture, where no one was willing to challenge the rule-bending and recklessness as the company's executives charged into one ill-considered business line after another.
--"In Enron Case, a Verdict on an Era," Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times, May 26, 2006.
In the documentary, Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room, bankers, lawyers, and accountants detailed exactly how bankers, lawyers, and accountants literally aided and abetted Enron in its various schemes, either trusting blindly or simply turning a blind eye to abuses it knew was going on but chose to ignore because they were making so much money themselves. Now they, too, have lost jobs, been convicted of their crimes, and/or gone bankrupt.
One former Enron executive said simply, "There had to be complicity all across the board, because it was all too easy."
The thing is, we've seen the same sort of complicity in this Republican rubber-stamp Congress. As I detailed in my posts, King George and the Masters of the Universe (May 12, 2006) and The High (Personal) Costs of Corruption (April 30, 2006), the Republican Congress has acted with appalling impunity, tossing rules and centuries-old protocol out the window, introducing complicated legislation with no time for study and ramming it through past midnight without debate, and finally tossing it up to the White House, where this president then signs it without veto--ever--but then attaches "signing statements" in which he pledges to do pretty much whatever he damn well pleases, no matter what the law he just signed says.
Consequently, the earmarks and reckless credit-card spending for pork barrel projects of this Congress has mushroom-clouded into a nightmare deficit and national debt with no end in sight; our country has been stampeded into a self-start war for the first time in its history, and the civil rights of Americans have been trampled beneath the hooves of this administration's arrogance, even as the Congressmen (mostly men) themselves were growing greedier and greedier, breaking laws with wild abandon and stuffing their back pockets with the overflow of lucre, all while polishing that God-fearing, flag-waving image because, you know, image is all.
Meanwhile, this president packed political cronies into important positions in just about every major government office in existence, regardless of their experience or expertise in the area. With his swagger and strut, he made it clear that he'd just as soon get rid of all government and privatize the whole country.
The business executives who took over government offices had no idea how to run government or get anything accomplished, nor did any of them seem to care. On the day Katrina struck landfall, after dozens of dire warnings from weather experts, the director of Homeland Security, which was now the umbrella agency overseeing disaster relief, went off to a conference on the bird flu.
God, as they say, is in the details.
Attention to the mundane details of business…appeared to be almost second thoughts among the senior ranks of the company, if thought about at all. Instead, the focus centered on marketing the image, not only of the company, but of the senior executives.
--"In Enron, a Verdict on an Era," New York Times.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the political hacks in charge of crucial positions at places like NASA and the Food and Drug Administration, set about stifling all scientific inquiry and literally blacking out unfavorable reports, in order to bolster the political image of its CEO, George W. Bush. (See my post, Political(izing) Science, March 27, 2006.)
And while Congress and this president have squandered a $300 billion surplus left by President Clinton, driven the budget into a half-trillion-dollar deficit and an $8 trillion debt, so Enron, too, chose to push closer and closer to the edge.
Putting new labels on the old wine didn't change the financial underpinnings of the business…Enron chose instead to maintain a credit rating just notches above junk, apparently in the belief that a bad day would never arrive.
--"In Enron, a Verdict on an Era," New York Times
I really think there is a connection between the crooked and corrupt corporate culture that allowed a black mold like Enron to grow, and this administration and this Congress's methods. So many of its highest-flying Icaruses…have now crashed into the sun and melted, such as Scooter Libby and Tom DeLay.
That may go a long way toward explaining how corporate America became infused in the late 1990's by what appeared to be a near endless amount of greed and criminality, leading to scandal at an array of corporate giants, from Enron to Worldcom, from Adelphia to Healthsouth and Tyco.
--ibid (and we could add the words at the end of that sentence, "and Congress and the White House.")
"It's the corporate culture itself. With all the perks…you can lose your soul."
--documentary, "Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room."
posted by Deanie Mills at 6:50 AM
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