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Non-Tech : The ENRON Scandal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1163)	1/25/2002 12:20:06 PM
From: Baldur Fjvlnisson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5185

The Grand Experiment (1/24/02) capitalstool.com The market gapped open on Thursday, was strong through mid day, and spent the rest of the day fighting not to close the gap. The bulls were finally successful at holding on to about half the gains, and keeping the Nasdaq above the gap, thereby setting up the possibility of forming a Flying Turd Formation on the chart. One of Dr. Stool's rare chart patterns, these patterns form when the market gaps up one day, and gaps down the next. Whether that will happen or not, we'll know in the morning. The Nasdaq 100 Fucutures did gap down on the opening of the after hours session, but a lot can happen in 15 hours. By the end of the day the Dow managed to hold on to a gain of 65 at 9796, after a mid day high of 9856. The Nas sold of from a high of 1960, to close at 1942.58, up 20, and the SPX was only able to hang on to a gain of 3.97, closing at 1132.15, after hitting 1139.50 earlier. It was a see saw battle all day, and although the end result made it look like the bulls won this one, intraday oscillators were flashing sell signals as the day drew to a close. The futures have done nothing to contradict that so far in the evening session. FBI* Director Algae Greenspew was out cheerleading the market. It's really quite a spectacle watching the Fed jump through rings of fire in this experimental circus act of managing the markets. I'm old enough to remember when a Fed Chairman never said anything. Even if the old Fed didn't have a clue either, the unrevealed policy at least carried the appearance of dignity. This one doesn't, it loudly advertises that the fix is in, and it loudly advertises its incompetence to some of us. Still the portfolio sphincters who make decisions about what to do with your money are even dumber, and they will believe anything that suggests stocks will go up. When Greenweenie's comments a couple weeks ago were "misinterpreted" by the market- simple, just be a little more cheerful and the markets will be happier. Ah the power of positive thinking. From my perspective the market itself will tell us everything we need to know about the market. We don't need a FEED chairman to make happy talk to tell us whether something's rotten or not. And there's nothing more rotten than a central bank blatantly manipulating the market, and perpetuating a mania. One of these days that grand experiment is going to blow up the laboratory, and all the experimental subjects with it. *Financial Bubble Inc.

To: TigerPaw who wrote (1163)	1/25/2002 1:14:18 PM
From: The Duke of URL©	Respond to of 5185

msnbc.com The mention of Baxter in the Watkins-Lay Memo: " “Cliff Baxter complained mightily to Skilling [the cfo who left] and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions,” " BAXTER, 43, WAS vice chairman of Enron when he resigned in May 2001, several months before the energy company’s collapse. Sugar Land police department spokeswoman Patricia Whitty said Baxter was found inside his car early on Friday with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, and a suicide note at his side. There were no apparent signs of foul play, she said. Enron confirmed the death in a short statement: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and colleague, Cliff Baxter.” Enron spokesman Mark Palmer had no additional comment. Baxter’s body was found at 2:23 a.m. local time Friday in between two medians in a residential area in Sugar Land. He was in the driver’s seat of the vehicle and a police officer stopped to check on him after noticing the parked car. Jim Richard, a Fort Bend County justice of the peace, ruled Baxter’s death a suicide mid-morning Friday. “We don’t have any other indication other than it being suicide,” said Sugar Land police Capt. David Marcaurele. Baxter was one of 29 former and current Enron executives and board members named as defendants in a federal lawsuit. Plaintiffs’ lawyers said the executives made $1.1 billion by selling Enron stock between October 1998 and November 2001. It said Baxter had sold 577,436 shares for $35.2 million. Baxter had reportedly feuded with then-Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling over the propriety of off-balance sheet transactions that hid billions in debt and ultimately triggered the once-mighty Houston company’s spiral into the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. “Cliff Baxter complained mightily to Skilling and all who would listen about the inappropriateness of our transactions,” Enron whistle-blower Sherron Watkins wrote to Chairman and CEO Ken Lay, who resigned on Wednesday, in an Aug. 14 letter. Watkins identified Baxter in a section of her letter stating there is “a veil of secrecy around LJM and Raptor,” another entity involved in the partnerships. Watkins’ letter to Lay stated that “we will implode in a wave of accounting scandals” unless the company halted practices that eventually sent it into bankruptcy.