Bagged!
Huzzah! They bagged "Kenny Boy" Lay and, umm, "Scumbag" Skilling! The Enron-sters are going to jail!
Somehow, by some mysterious means, rich dudes with great lawyers (one presumes) didn't just walk away laughing. Of course, not even their ill-gotten wealth will replace the retirement and savings funds that they bilked from millions of working people, but a conviction is a start.
These are the guys who played by Georgie's rules. They are the cartel capitalists who trod with the weight and power of huge dinosaurs through the American economy, but did more damage than any T-Rex.
They worked the economy to their own gain and everyone else's loss. They made money by fixing the game in their own benefit, not by beating the game through hard work or smart dealing.
They are the lesson in conservative economics. That is: market forces are a myth. As long as there are Kenny Boys out there - and there are always more Kenny Boys - there is no free market.
And without 'market forces' driving things, the whole conservative fantasyland falls to pieces. 'Government shouldn't do those things because the market will find a way to do it for profit.'
But there is no 'free market.' There is a fixed market run by NeoCon crooks. If there was to be a fair market anywhere ever, it would be based on government regulations -- strictly enforced - that eliminated lizards like Lay and Skilling.
The best example is the California energy crisis that the company created. They artificially inflated energy prices by starving the market, and then made a killing by selling deliberately over-priced energy.
Meanwhile, NeoCon market fairies were preserving the illusion that the 'market' would sort the problem on its own, when simple government intervention could have stopped the whole thing cold. It's like they held the front door open for the burglars while preventing the cops from stopping them.
They're going to jail now, but only after the fact. They and their ilk have already sucked what they could from the former company and the rest of us.
If only we could learn the lesson...
Somehow, by some mysterious means, rich dudes with great lawyers (one presumes) didn't just walk away laughing. Of course, not even their ill-gotten wealth will replace the retirement and savings funds that they bilked from millions of working people, but a conviction is a start.
These are the guys who played by Georgie's rules. They are the cartel capitalists who trod with the weight and power of huge dinosaurs through the American economy, but did more damage than any T-Rex.
They worked the economy to their own gain and everyone else's loss. They made money by fixing the game in their own benefit, not by beating the game through hard work or smart dealing.
They are the lesson in conservative economics. That is: market forces are a myth. As long as there are Kenny Boys out there - and there are always more Kenny Boys - there is no free market.
And without 'market forces' driving things, the whole conservative fantasyland falls to pieces. 'Government shouldn't do those things because the market will find a way to do it for profit.'
But there is no 'free market.' There is a fixed market run by NeoCon crooks. If there was to be a fair market anywhere ever, it would be based on government regulations -- strictly enforced - that eliminated lizards like Lay and Skilling.
The best example is the California energy crisis that the company created. They artificially inflated energy prices by starving the market, and then made a killing by selling deliberately over-priced energy.
Meanwhile, NeoCon market fairies were preserving the illusion that the 'market' would sort the problem on its own, when simple government intervention could have stopped the whole thing cold. It's like they held the front door open for the burglars while preventing the cops from stopping them.
They're going to jail now, but only after the fact. They and their ilk have already sucked what they could from the former company and the rest of us.
If only we could learn the lesson...
posted by fiduciary at 8:32 AM
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