Miscellaneous Ramblings.... - Enron

Enron Explorer

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 06:39:00 -0600

Thanks to my friends at MNSpeak, I came across the Enron Explorer Tool, which lets you search through all of the Enron emails that were used in the Enron indictment case. Putting in the names of some of our local politicians certainly produce interesting results.

Enron: Ken Lay Passes Away

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 5 Jul 2006 10:45:00 -0500

In yet another footnote to the ongoing Enron saga, Ken Lay has passed away today from an apparent heart attack.

Enron Verdict: Guilty!

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:06:58 -0500

The Enron verdict for Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling was delivered today, after the jury spent over 5 days deliberating and, personally, I am glad that the verdict was guilty, especially given the vast ramifications that their actions had. The four-man, eight-woman jury found Lay guilty on all six counts and Jeffrey Skilling guilty on 19 of 28 counts.
CNN, MSNBC and the Houston Chronicle (which has been closely following the trial from the start) all have their takes on the verdict.

DVD: "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 11:07:00 -0600

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room has (finally) been released on DVD. (And yes, I was at Best Buy promptly to pick up my copy ). For me (especially having previously worked in the power systems industry), this is definitely one of the more hard hitting documentaries that I have seen.

Update (1/24/06): Included in the DVD extras are some nice weblinks for more information:

Houston Chronicle
FERC
SEC - Enron Spotlight
Enron Movie (Offic Site)
Enron: After the Collapse (PBS Online NewsHour)

California Energy Crisis
McCullough Research
Enron Tapes
Snohomish PUD: Fight Against Enron

Movie : Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room - Part 2

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Fri, 13 May 2005 21:49:00 -0500

I did finally see "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" a couple of weeks ago. Even though I was fairly familar with the main parts of the scandel, the documentary was quite illuminating as well as disturbing. It was illuminating (and disturbing) to see how close the Skilling and Lay were to the Bush family (both presidents).

Two power utilities that were hardest hit by the Enron-created California Energy Crisis were PG&E and Southern Cal-Edison.
PG&E neared bankruptcy, which forced the State of California to bail them out (but having the consequence of essentially bankrupting the state). Of course, this does not even begin to take into account the thousands of employees who lost their entire savings and pensions. It is made even more heart-wrenching when you hear (recently uncovered) tapes of the Enron West Coast traders laughing (callously) about screwing the California power grid. In some of the segments, you hear the traders telling the plant operators to "get creative" with the excuses for shutting down the power plants, thereby causing a shortage and driving the prices up.

(I did give in and buy one of the Enron T-Shirts that the Uptown Theatre was selling with the "Ask Why" on the front. Of course it would have been funnier to acquire a T-Shirt with the "Ask Why -- **shole" on the front -- a play off of Jeff Skilling's response to a stock analyst asking why Enron never could seem to produce a balance sheet; of course there is always Ebay.... ).

Movie Trailer: Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 15:38:00 -0500

For all of those who were fascinated/puzzled by the Enron debacle, the upcoming movie "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" is for you. The documentary relies heavily on the research of Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind who wrote the book: The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. Judging from the trailer, it looks like a very well done movie.
James Berardinelli has a good review of the movie as well as Metacritic.
{The official site is also up}.

Even though it has been more almost three years since the scandal first unfolded, I still find it unbelievable (and infuriating) the vast amount of greed and arrogance in what used to be the seventh largest company, that not only caused rolling blackouts in California, but also manage to fool some of the best minds in the country as well. When Enron finally went bust, the aftershocks were felt far and wide. From the Arthur Anderson LLP Consulting firm (which may never fully recover from the blow) to the thousands of employees who lost entire pensions, life savings and 401Ks. The real question to ask is:

"How different was/is Enron from many of the other Fortune 500 companies (still) out there?"