Cara Ellison

SEC SETTLES WITH MADOFF - NO FREAKING WRONG DOING?

Your rant is largely incoherent but I wanted to point out that Jeff Skilling isn't playing tennis. He's (wrongly) in prison where he's desperately fighting for his freedom. I wish he *was* allowed to play tennis.

Jeff Skilling does not belong in prison. He is innocent. I pray for the day he is free.

We've Crossed the Line from Capitalism to Socialism

<b>Cara Ellison: Are you really taking the position of an Enron defender in 2008?</b>

Absolutely. Check my blog for my Enron love fest. I absolutely adore Enron and will defend it until my dying breath.

<b> The company went bankrupt and top executives were convicted of fraud. </b>

Yes and no. Yes that happened, but no, that's not the full story.

<b>You're going to need to do a little better than "there was a very deliberate business purpose": what was it? </b>

The balance sheet was not released with the earnings statement because the numbers were still being collected and collated deep into the third quarter. It was impossible for Enron to provide both at the same time, and it had been done that way since way before Jeff Skilling became the CEO.

<b>Also, if Skilling was in the business of "[trying] to get people to see Enron for what it was", please explain why he committed fraud, resigned just ahead of bankruptcy, and dumped his stock for personal gain.</b>

Obviously I don't believe he did any of that. He didn't commit fraud and any cursory investigation into the matter will bear that out. He LOST money on Enron. Furthermore, when he left he was entitled to a $22 million severance package, plus forgiveness of a $2 million loan. Skilling took NOTHING. He paid back the loan out of his own money and took no severance. Is that really the action of someone who is committing fraud? Furthermore, when he was transitioning out of the wholesale group, he was entitled to $50 million dollars because he'd been given an equity stake in that business. He took less than half because he decided he didn't need it and it wasn't good for the business. Again, is this really the action of a man who was consumed with greed?

We've Crossed the Line from Capitalism to Socialism

I agree with most of your post but please get your facts straight regarding Jeff Skilling and the infamous "asshole" comment.

Highfields Capital analyst Richard Grubman joined a conference call at Enron and asked, for the sixth consecutive quarter, for a balance sheet with the earnings statement. For the sixth time, Jeff Skilling told him that at Enron, the balance sheet was not released with earnings statements (at trial, the reasons for this were covered at length; there was nothing illegal or untoward about it - there was a very deliberate business purpose for doing things the way Enron did.) The following is a transcript of the challenged part of the call:

Grubman: You’re the only financial institution that can’t produce a balance sheet or cash flow statement with their earnings.

Skilling: You…you…you. Well, uh…thank you very much. We appreciate it. Asshole.

At this point, everyone inside the Enron building was jumping up and down and high-fiving each other because their CEO had finally said something to this guy who had been talking down the stock for quite some time - and even the question was a sort of accusation. Enron folks thought Skilling handled the call just fine. Of course, it wasn’t as well received in the rest of the business world.

It caused such a kerfluffle that it was even brought up at trial by Sean Berkowitz. To which Skilling replied, “The now infamous ‘asshole’ quote was used as an example of arrogance or something. It wasn’t meant that way.”

It was clearly not - and though Jeff was an executive who should have just rolled his eyes and passed the call to someone else, that wasn’t his style. He got his hands dirty. He talked to short sellers. He tried to get people to see Enron for what it was. As he said right after the verdict at his trial, some things work and some things don’t. Calling Grubman an asshole, as a strategy for handling pests, didn’t.

But the comment was never as earthshattering as the revisionists would like to believe. It did not signal some sort of meltdown. It didn’t mean that Skilling feared the question or was trying to deflect Grubman. Even Jeff Skilling is entitled to lose his temper once in a while.

Short Sellers: Quit Whining and Follow The Rules

I defend Enron because it was a good company. There was no fraud at Enron; Enron was defrauded by LJM, a fact that nobody seems to grasp. And then the prosecution of the executives was just egregious. There were threats and coercion of both the defendants and anyone who might help the defendants.

I still heart Enron.

Short Sellers: Quit Whining and Follow The Rules

I defend Enron because it was a good company. There was no fraud at Enron; Enron was defrauded by LJM, a fact that nobody seems to grasp. And then the prosecution of the executives was just egregious. There were threats and coercion of both the defendants and anyone who might help the defendants.

I still heart Enron.

Short Sellers: Quit Whining and Follow The Rules

Just a technical observation: Chanos and Bethany McLean were working hand in hand to bring down Enron. He had *planned* to attack Enron stock during his annual Bears In Hibernation meeting, and had shorted billions of dollars of stock. He then told McLean that Enron's financial statements didn't make sense. Bethany, being a hungry young journalist, took his tip to heart and began to scrounge for proof of Chanos's comments.

It's not correct to divide them when analysing Enron.