The Good Guys
The New York Times
December 24, 2002
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Time magazine's persons of the year are three whistle-blowers:
Sherron Watkins of Enron, Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom and Coleen Rowley of
the F.B.I.
They deserve to be celebrated. After all, thanks to Ms. Watkins and Ms. Cooper,
Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers have been indicted, and the
politicians who did their bidding have been disgraced. Thanks to Ms. Rowley,
incompetent officials at the F.B.I. and C.I.A. have been removed from
their posts, and we've had a searching inquiry into what went wrong on Sept. 11.
Oh, I'm sorry. None of that actually happened. The bravery of the whistle-blowers
was real enough, but Time seems to be celebrating what should
have been, not what was.
This past year brought shocking revelations about how American institutions,
from corporations to government agencies, really operate. But the
whistle-blowers haven't been rewarded; Time makes it clear that
Ms. Cooper and Ms. Rowley are personae non gratae in their organizations. And
those on whom the whistle was blown have mostly gone unpunished.
Last week one F.B.I. official singled out by Ms. Rowley - he blocked an
investigation that might have averted Sept. 11 - received a special presidential
award.
I'm a history buff, so the events of 2002 made me think of a historical
parallel - the English peasant rebellion of 1381. The rebels very nearly took
London, but were turned aside by King Richard II, who promised to end
the oppression of the common people by the aristocracy. As soon as the
danger had passed, however, he made it clear that promises to little
people don't count. "Villeins ye are, and villeins ye shall remain."
During the late spring and summer, amid corporate scandals
and tales of F.B.I. ineptitude, Americans received many promises of reform.
But once the political danger had passed, all those promises - even, incredibly,
the promise that families of victims would get to choose one member of the
Sept. 11 commission - became non-operational. Villeins ye are . . .
Yet some good guys did win victories.
Time named New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer,
"crusader of the year." Mr. Spitzer's achievement shouldn't be overstated; he didn't "save
capitalism," as some would have it. The $1.4 billion settlement he wrung
out of the securities industry was a small fraction of what investors lost on
highly touted stocks, stocks that insiders knew were worthless. And while
the settlement requires that investment banks pay for some independent
stock research, it probably won't be enough to erase suspicions that
analysis is slanted in favor of big customers.
But Mr. Spitzer achieved far more than anyone else, and more than
anyone could have expected. With no help from federal regulators, who should
have been taking the lead, he used the limited powers of his office - the power
to investigate and to publicize the outrages he found -- brilliantly.
It's a tribute to his effectiveness that powerful congressmen tried
to shut him down, by inserting language into reform legislation that would have
stripped state attorneys general of the right to carry out Spitzer-type
investigations. (What about states' rights? Oh, that only applies when states
want to, well, you know.)
You also have to admire Mr. Spitzer's style. Key to his success
was the discovery of incriminating internal communications. Addressing an
investment industry dinner, he told the audience, "It is wonderful to be here
this evening, because I really want to put faces to all those e-mails."
So I'm glad that Mr. Spitzer has gotten his due. But let me put
in a plug for another group of good guys who haven't gotten their
due: California's long-suffering electricity regulators.
Back during the crisis of 2000-2001, those regulators were ridiculed for saying
that energy companies were manipulating the market. Nobody except
an Op-Ed columnist or two believed them. But over the course of 2002,
as incriminating memos and tapes came to light, they were fully vindicated.
As with Mr. Spitzer, the compensation they have recently managed
to extract - $1.8 billion in refunds - falls far short of the tens of billions looted
from the public. But also like Mr. Spitzer, they've done very well given
the lack of cooperation, and often active hostility, from Washington.
If truth be told, 2002 was a very good year for cynics. But it's the
day before Christmas, so let's be thankful for our gifts: the good guys
who made a difference.
nytimes.com
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company |
