Feb 10
iBribe
bribes, Enron, politicians Comments Off
Turns out Enron used custom software to work out which politicians to buy in order to get what they wanted most effectively…
Feb 05
ENRON
Congress, Enron, Jim Slater, Ken Lay, Minnie Driver, Ronnie Biggs Comments Off
Ken Lay has resigned from Enron, told Congress he won’t answer their questions, and now he’s mysteriously gone missing…
Maybe he’ll turn up in Spain with Ronnie Biggs, Minnie Driver’s father Ronnie, Jim Slater, and all the other (alleged) crooks…
Feb 03
As bankrupted Enron suckers queue up to try and get a $1,000 compensation check, the scam artists who ran the company are flying to the bankrupcy hearings in $45m private jets.
You know, even in the 80s I don’t recall the rich and powerful behaving with such open contempt for the people they screwed over.
Jan 11
Looks like people are finally starting to question the close relationship between Enron and the Bush White House, even as Enron admits shredding thousands of pages of paper trail evidence…
Jan 09
Sign of the times
business, Enron, homelessness, Wall Street Journal Comments Off
This morning I saw a fat, bearded homeless man with a shopping cart full of bundles of I-don’t-know-what tied inside plastic bags. He was leaning over a trash can—reading a discarded copy of the Wall Street Journal intently.
Checking his Enron stock, perhaps?
Jul 05
The invisible hand at work
business, California, cheaper electricity rate, electricity, electricity distribution, energy crisis, Enron, FotFM, politics Comments Off
As a response to the (deliberately manufactured) energy crisis in California, some of the electricity distribution companies began offering special contracts to encourage corporate customers to be more efficient. The deal was: They’d get a cheaper electricity rate, if they agreed to cut their usage by 15% when asked to do so during peak time shortages. If they failed to do so, they’d have to pay extra-high premium prices.
This is, of course, rational market-based pricing of goods—as the theory goes, people who need lots of electricity when it’s in short supply should pay more, and the way to encourage efficiency and flexibility is to give it a financial incentive.
Well, as a result many big corporations are now deliberately consuming 15% more electricity than they need, so that if they’re asked to cut usage at peak times, it’ll be easy to do so. Bwahahaha, another victory for the free market.