Don't worry. Buy Enron.
01/02/2003 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie has posted this especially for her wicked badger friends
Izzie HATES musicals. But this one is absolutely wonderful.
You can find the written version of this masterpiece at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s743291.htm
Here's a little message I wrote,
It may make you cash in your banknote.
Don't worry, buy Enron.
With any stock there can be trouble,
But not to worry, Enron will double.
Don't worry, buy Enron,
don't worry buy Enron.
"So far the play has focused on the funny games going on in corporate accounting. But despite the best attempts of conservative spin doctors, the political fallout is creeping closer to the White House. Congress demanded Vice President Dick Cheney hand over documents relating to meetings he had with Key Lay and Enron executives. So far, Cheney has successfully refused.
At Texans for Public Justice, an organisation that monitors political campaign contributions, there's outrage at the hand-in-glove relationship between Key Lay and George Bush.
"... [George W.] Bush owes his political career to Ken Lay and to Enron."
Craig McDonald: The record shows that Ken Lay had been a personal friend of the family, they had many interactions together and without Ken Lay I think it's safe to say, without Ken Lay and Enron's money early, now President then gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush's campaign, he probably would not have defeated the incumbent governor, therefore would not be Governor of Texas, and would not be President today, so I think Bush owes his political career to Ken Lay and to Enron. So it's a relationship where George W. Bush is absolutely beholden to Ken Lay's chequebook.
Stan Correy: George Bush wants to remain America's most popular President. So he's denying everything. Craig McDonald says it's nothing new.
Craig McDonald: It is not out of our political culture for the President to back up and distance himself from that scandal, even though I guess somewhere back in their mind, he must know that the factual record will belie that distancing. Because clearly, our President, President George W. Bush's first reaction was really to say, Kenneth Who? Enron what? He really tried to distance himself from a personal and political relationship to Ken Lay.
Bush and Enron, Bush and Enron,
go together like an atom and a proton.
This I tell you brother,
you won't find one without the other.
Bush and Enron,
Bush and Enron.
This boy from Texas ain't no moron.
To win you need a lot of money,
and you won't get it without some honey.
Stan Correy: So the cast has Kings and Queens, Princes, courtiers, fools and armies of workers. There are also the crowd scenes to be cast. The retirees and the investors, many of whom have lost their life savings, and whose cries of pain are also heard before Congress.
Chairman: If you would pull the microphone very close.
Mary Bain Pearson: Is that all right?
Chairman: That's fine.
Mary Bain Pearson: My name is Mary Bain Pearson. I'm a 71-year-old Latin teacher and tutor. I've always tried to handle my business in a logical manner like you conjugate a verb or decline a noun. Many times I'd pick up the newspaper and see Ken Lay's name in it. He was very generous, he was always at charity parties and giving millions of dollars to this and hundreds and thousands of dollars to that, and it was a wonderful thing, and it made the company look very, very good.
I'm just a pebble in the stream, a little bitty shareholder. But what I did lose seems like a billion to me. In fact what really hurts is I bought my grand-daughter some Enron stock and she's ten years old, so I feel real bad about that.
I was going to use my Enron stock as my long-term health care. Well, I don't know what I'm going to do now, I'm going to have to go home and re-evaluate my life and see what I can do.
Chairman: Ms Pearson, thank you very much for being here. Next we will hear from Mr Prestwood.
Charles Prestwood: I thank you Mr Chairman. You know the Committee people and the other Senators that are here. My name is Charles Prestwood, and I've come from Conroe Texas, which is about roughly 50 miles north of Houston. And I've been - my age is some 63 years old and I've been with Enron ever since the beginning, and I had all my savings, everything, in Enron stock, I lost $1.3-million. Us retirees and 99% of the Enron employees, they didn't know anything was wrong with our company, they had no idea. I had no idea that our company was in trouble, that our company was on the verge of collapse.
Stan Correy: And there's more. The gatekeepers, the most important gatekeepers are those big firms who promoted and then wallowed in deregulation since the Reagan and Thatcher era. There are the banks, the credit rating agencies, the big three, and the accounting and consulting firms, the big five. Once upon a time they had the role of the wise adviser in the drama. Now Arthur Andersen, one of the big five firms who have their fingers into almost every corporate and government pie in the world, may not survive the fallout of the Enron scandal. Frank Partnoy."
Izzie HATES musicals. But this one is absolutely wonderful.
You can find the written version of this masterpiece at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s743291.htm
Here's a little message I wrote,
It may make you cash in your banknote.
Don't worry, buy Enron.
With any stock there can be trouble,
But not to worry, Enron will double.
Don't worry, buy Enron,
don't worry buy Enron.
"So far the play has focused on the funny games going on in corporate accounting. But despite the best attempts of conservative spin doctors, the political fallout is creeping closer to the White House. Congress demanded Vice President Dick Cheney hand over documents relating to meetings he had with Key Lay and Enron executives. So far, Cheney has successfully refused.
At Texans for Public Justice, an organisation that monitors political campaign contributions, there's outrage at the hand-in-glove relationship between Key Lay and George Bush.
"... [George W.] Bush owes his political career to Ken Lay and to Enron."
Craig McDonald: The record shows that Ken Lay had been a personal friend of the family, they had many interactions together and without Ken Lay I think it's safe to say, without Ken Lay and Enron's money early, now President then gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush's campaign, he probably would not have defeated the incumbent governor, therefore would not be Governor of Texas, and would not be President today, so I think Bush owes his political career to Ken Lay and to Enron. So it's a relationship where George W. Bush is absolutely beholden to Ken Lay's chequebook.
Stan Correy: George Bush wants to remain America's most popular President. So he's denying everything. Craig McDonald says it's nothing new.
Craig McDonald: It is not out of our political culture for the President to back up and distance himself from that scandal, even though I guess somewhere back in their mind, he must know that the factual record will belie that distancing. Because clearly, our President, President George W. Bush's first reaction was really to say, Kenneth Who? Enron what? He really tried to distance himself from a personal and political relationship to Ken Lay.
Bush and Enron, Bush and Enron,
go together like an atom and a proton.
This I tell you brother,
you won't find one without the other.
Bush and Enron,
Bush and Enron.
This boy from Texas ain't no moron.
To win you need a lot of money,
and you won't get it without some honey.
Stan Correy: So the cast has Kings and Queens, Princes, courtiers, fools and armies of workers. There are also the crowd scenes to be cast. The retirees and the investors, many of whom have lost their life savings, and whose cries of pain are also heard before Congress.
Chairman: If you would pull the microphone very close.
Mary Bain Pearson: Is that all right?
Chairman: That's fine.
Mary Bain Pearson: My name is Mary Bain Pearson. I'm a 71-year-old Latin teacher and tutor. I've always tried to handle my business in a logical manner like you conjugate a verb or decline a noun. Many times I'd pick up the newspaper and see Ken Lay's name in it. He was very generous, he was always at charity parties and giving millions of dollars to this and hundreds and thousands of dollars to that, and it was a wonderful thing, and it made the company look very, very good.
I'm just a pebble in the stream, a little bitty shareholder. But what I did lose seems like a billion to me. In fact what really hurts is I bought my grand-daughter some Enron stock and she's ten years old, so I feel real bad about that.
I was going to use my Enron stock as my long-term health care. Well, I don't know what I'm going to do now, I'm going to have to go home and re-evaluate my life and see what I can do.
Chairman: Ms Pearson, thank you very much for being here. Next we will hear from Mr Prestwood.
Charles Prestwood: I thank you Mr Chairman. You know the Committee people and the other Senators that are here. My name is Charles Prestwood, and I've come from Conroe Texas, which is about roughly 50 miles north of Houston. And I've been - my age is some 63 years old and I've been with Enron ever since the beginning, and I had all my savings, everything, in Enron stock, I lost $1.3-million. Us retirees and 99% of the Enron employees, they didn't know anything was wrong with our company, they had no idea. I had no idea that our company was in trouble, that our company was on the verge of collapse.
Stan Correy: And there's more. The gatekeepers, the most important gatekeepers are those big firms who promoted and then wallowed in deregulation since the Reagan and Thatcher era. There are the banks, the credit rating agencies, the big three, and the accounting and consulting firms, the big five. Once upon a time they had the role of the wise adviser in the drama. Now Arthur Andersen, one of the big five firms who have their fingers into almost every corporate and government pie in the world, may not survive the fallout of the Enron scandal. Frank Partnoy."
