Hi Tom,
Yes, you're right, I didn't consider well enough the context in which Watkins wrote her letter. If she really knew the extent of what was going on, she may well have just quit, like the guy who just committed suicide (I forget his name, sorry), or at least gotten on the horn to find a different job post haste. Her letter suggests that she didn't make the really big money that some of the others made (though, as Linda Lay's interview points out, what one considers "big money" is clearly relative, perhaps especially in Texas).
As for Lay not knowing what was going on--somehow he kept on collecting and cashing his checks and options. Any CEO worth that much money better understand how his company is making it, or he/she is toast and isn't worth the money to begin with.
Is this what happened to these guys: They formed these "partnerships", sold shares in them to their banks and financial advisors (undoubtedly shaking them down with some sort of quid pro quo--you invest in these and we'll give you some of our lucrative and never-ending business), then transferred these billions to Daddy Enron in return for stock and/or notes, which Daddy then used to finance his trades, grease Houston's social and cultural scenes as well pols of all stripes, and (far from least) pay their execs. Then they put their good trades in their income statements and their bad trades into the partnerships, so that they could be the new Kings of the World (isn't that what Solomon's traders used to call themselves?). When the price of oil crumbled, and they didn't get it (they apparently kept expecting a rebound or at least more stability), then their trading losses just overwhelmed them. Is that a fair albeit simple summary of what happened to them?
Remember Will Durant, he of early General Motors fame? He ended his days as a manager in a bowling alley somewhere in Michigan. Remember: Man plans, God laughs.
Sam |
