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Pastimes : The California Energy Crisis - Information & Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (1060)	1/23/2002 5:57:11 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

It's no wonder that Phil Gramm isn't running for office again; I'm guessing that he and Wendy know the s-it was going to hit the fan and that they would be covered in it one way or another. Here is the Watkins letter, with some of my reaction to it: Message 16950213 Couldn't agree with you more on "the causes for alarm about moral turpitude and the destruction of American values is a couple of orders of magnitude greater in this scandal. A little office hanky panky vs. the greatest bankruptcy in history and, of course, the American public is by and large still more intrigued by Monica's dress than by Ken Lay's deceit." Amazing. Just amazing.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (1060)	1/24/2002 12:04:08 AM
From: portage	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1715

Good article Ray. It basically lays out the pieces similarly to what I thought was happening, but with more detail on the Phil Gramm scam. That whiny lying f*ck has always been among the worst of the bunch. One part they mentioned but didn't seem to back up with numbers was how Enron got stuck with expensive contracts that it couldn't unload after the price cap. I read through it pretty quickly, but didn't see any hard numbers on that. It also makes it more clear why the "crisis" took off only in late 2000 / early 2001. I had thought it was mainly because the marketers and power co.'s knew that FERC wouldn't step in with Bush now in office, so they could game away. But apparently Gramm's role had added fuel to this fire too. Though the companies were greedy, I always blamed FERC and the hands-off politicians in DC for letting it get fully out of control. The price caps quickly halted the incentive to manipulate supply, but seemed to allow them a decent profit for the most part. You know, it's ironic. Nader should have stuck to this type of role, writing papers and raking muck. Without him running, Bush would not be in office now. So in a way, I grimace at his outfit throwing bricks at the people whose power he enabled. His ego is still way too big for him to admit the truth about what he did. On the other hand, Bush is going to be in for the shock of his life. This economy is the most perilous since the 30s, with numerous parallels. It's pathetic how the media thinks they're going to talk us out of the tough medicine that needs to be swallowed. The industrial robber barons have been replaced by the financial ones, and when joe sixpack gets slapped awake with this realization, the trouble soon begins. Enron is the siren call.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (1060)	1/27/2002 9:04:35 PM
From: Just_Observing	Respond to of 1715

Too bad we couldn't find a little sex in the books at ENE The Brits have found the sex angle at Enron Enron cocktail of cash, sex and fast living (Filed: 28/01/2002) Enron was a company in love with itself. Office affairs were rampant, divorce among senior executives an epidemic, and stories of couples steaming up glass-walled offices after late-night meetings were the talk of Houston. "It was insane," says a former energy trader, soothing her financial injuries with a margarita. "There were no rules for people, even in our personal lives. Everything was about the company and everything was supposed to be on the edge - sex, money, all of it." telegraph.co.uk