Enron

I’d Pretend, That I Was A Billboard
I used to view personal interplay as a chance to “put my best face forward” – and in so doing I shut myself off. There’s a line in a Talking Heads song – Nothing But Flowers—“Years ago, I was an angry young man, and I’d pretend, that I was a billboard”—and that’s where I was at. I was truthful, sure, but I think I always tried to spin things in the most positive way possible. Maybe that’s an Enron thing, using accounting tricks to show profits and success when really there was none. Not of course that I was that destructive and deceitful. But I definitely hid things about myself. A blessing of these days is that I’m much more open about my own faults. This has had benefits in the personal, the romantic, the professional, the artistic, and the spiritual spheres.

Jenny and I had dinner last night. I made my hamhanded attempt to cook (the salad was lovely!) and we spoke and talked about this and that as well as more serious topics. It was open and good. Jenny is a good friend to me. Then we went and saw the Austin Powers movie. Then we went to what is supposedly the largest Target in the world and shopped and talked. I feel very much her friend. We spoke openly and honestly. It gratifies me to be in that space. Pleasant.

I’ve been struggling lately with the compulsion I have to be with someone. But I think I’m realizing that I don’t have to be with someone all the time. Someone wrote to me we are always with ourselves – which sounded odd to me at first, but makes sense.

My Mom says that we are always with God. I don’t have the faith in that truth that she does. But I do believe in truth, and in love. These are both unmeasurable, abstract concepts. So perhaps there’s more faith in me than I ever realized. But the ideas of God as presented to me in my youth do not motivate or convince me. Spiritual growth is something I have as a goal, certainly. Much reading and research and self-searching to do in that area.

Okay, onward.

Something from an interview with Harry Shearer, from March 2002:

Let’s get back to politics. How about Dick Cheney having to hand over documents about his energy task force and policies? A step in the right direction?

If you live long enough, one of the rewards is to get the privilege of seeing each political cliche mouthed in turn by partisans from each side. So that the same people who were desperately demanding that we know chapter and verse about Hillary Clinton’s top-secret healthcare task force are now saying, “No, no, no, confidentiality, it’s an important principle.” And vice versa.

It explains why, or it’s a consequence of the fact that most of our politicians are trained as lawyers. Because that’s exactly what lawyers are trained to do: Take this side, all right, now take this side. That’s what they do. And anybody who thinks that they’re doing anything else is welcome to bid for some Enron stock certificates on eBay, because that is the game.

Enron Ethics Manual
The estimable ‘The Smoking Gun’ has made Enron’s Code of Ethics available online. You can’t beat the internet for document sharing.

We live in an appalling time. Airline safety is broken. Energy policy is broken. The educational system is broken. The music industry is broken. Popular culture is broken. Corporate behavior is largely unchecked. Political influence is for sale.

How I manage to retain hope for my Nation, I’m not sure.

The Long Con: Enron.
Enron Designed Fake Trading Floor – Former Employee Claims No Trades Transpired. ( via Tom Tomorrow )

See also: The Sting, The Grifters.

Amazing and appalling behavior. The lesson? The bigger the lie, the more likely it will be believed.

MSN Slate on Enron
At Slate, The Enron Blame Game (requires Flash) [link directly to popup]. Taking responsibility? No thanks, I’ll blame someone else.

Sometimes, even when you’re sick, you have to enter a viridian design contest. In this one, we rethink the Enron corporate logo.

Funny, via Dave Farber’s Interesting-People list:
Capitalism
– You have two cows.
– You sell one and buy a bull.
– Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
– You sell them and retire on the income.

Enron Venture Capitalism
– You have two cows.
– You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The Annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
– No Balance Sheet provided with the release.