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Non-Tech : The Enron Scandal - Unmoderated

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To: Zoltan! who wrote (1641)2/15/2002 9:28:31 AM
From: stockman_scott  Read Replies (1) of 3602
 
I tend to agree with this Detroit Free Press editorial...

Lay's Silence

Arrogance on such a grand scale adds to the outrage

February 14, 2002
The Detroit Free Press

<<No matter how somber and regretful Kenneth Lay seemed taking the Fifth Amendment this week, his all-too-brief appearance before Congress only reignites the rage against Enron's leadership, and by extension much of corporate America. Lay's silence amid the wreckage becomes the prime symbol of corporate arrogance.

Regular folks have taken it on the chin. Exhibit No. 1: the employees who lost their jobs and much of the savings in their 401(k) plans and investments they made in company stock, partly because of their abiding faith in the company and its chief. Other small investors are also watching their funds slog through the damage of having Enron in mutual funds or other holdings.

Lay spouted confident talk to employees when he had to know the company's prospects were, at best, uncertain, if not dire. Enron leaders continued to dump stock last year without an apparent ounce of concern for employees as a 401(k) lockdown approached.

Throughout the '90s, statistics have shown executive pay reaching bigger and more obscene multiples of the average employee's salary. Part of that comes from stock options, which supposedly motivate corporate chieftains to run the company well. Instead, stock options seem to inspire accounting games that help boost the stock price ever higher as top executives cash out for their own benefit.

Lay, now resigned from the company he nurtured, may have deluded himself as well as his employees. But running the Next New Thing doesn't absolve a business leader from an old value like taking responsibility. Lay deserves all the outrage that his silence kindles.>>

freep.com
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