Thursday, July 08, 2004
Ken Lay indicted
Ken Lay, the former Chairman of Enron and the man responsible for hiring Jeff Skilling, has been indicted. Without really knowing a damn thing about the facts of the case, I am guessing that he should not be convicted of any crime. He was by all appearances hideously negligent, but people who know him or knew him just don't believe that Ken Lay could have been behind the fantastic machinations that inflated and then destroyed the value of Enron's equity. He looks, to me, like a DOUG*, and DOUGs do not dream up financial structures that look like the schematics for Intel's latest microprocessor. They may get a little ambition worked up and hire a couple of whipper-snappers like Skilling and Fastow, but they're really all about keeping their job, preserving their social status, and pressing the flesh, this last skill having been de rigeur in the old public utility game. Remember, Enron was nothing but a sleepy gas pipeline company until Skilling showed up.
Nope, my gut tells me that the indictment of Lay, like the earlier gratuitous destruction of Arthur Andersen, is a political prosecution that may succeed, but should not.
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*Dumb Old Utility Guy
Nope, my gut tells me that the indictment of Lay, like the earlier gratuitous destruction of Arthur Andersen, is a political prosecution that may succeed, but should not.
_________________________________________
*Dumb Old Utility Guy
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