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Sunday, January 20, 2002
By Ann McFeatters
WASHINGTON - If we have any outrage left after Sept. 11, we should use it on the people responsible for the Enron disaster -- and the federal government which let it happen.
It doesn't matter that Enron is "not a political scandal," presumably meaning that it is unlikely to cost any political figures their jobs or re-election. It is not one bit surprising that Enron's and its chief Kenneth Lay's campaign donations ($550,000 alone to George W. Bush's various candidacies) bought access; that's what large campaign donations are designed to do. That's why serious campaign finance reform never gets passed.
What is heartbreaking is that so many jobs, so many pensions and so many nest eggs are gone, evaporated like smoke.
What is infuriating is that all the safeguards failed. What is the good of all those government agencies with weird acronyms, overworked or not, if they don't protect the public? What's the good of accounting firms if they don't do honest accounting?
What is incredible is that these financial catastrophes keep happening. Remember the mammoth savings and loan debacle? Remember Orange County? Remember the Chrysler bailout? Remember Studebaker's pension fiasco? Remember the global shuddering from the failure of Long-Term Capital Management?
There's a basic rule that keeps being violated by government watchdogs, financial analysts and investors: If it sounds too good to be true, IT IS! In business, if it defies understanding, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!
Now we'll all have to endure another round of investigations, finger-pointing and blame games -- the irritating, time-consuming process that thrives in Washington.
The egregiously arrogant, greedy players responsible for this all-too-familiar scenario have, of course, salted their money away where it's safe. Their friends in high places will defend them, saying they meant no harm. Not their fault that the stock price went from more than $80 a share to 67 cents when trading was suspended.
There will be an almost unbearably sad parade of witnesses -- shareholders, retirees, the newly unemployed -- who will pour out their sad stories before congressional panels. And nobody will be able to tell them what they do next, where they go to get their dreams back.
There are five lessons that can be quickly rattled off from this mess:
Enron, once the seventh-biggest company in the country, now has the distinction of having filed the biggest corporate bankruptcy case in U.S. history -- and having paid no taxes for four out of the past five years. It is being investigated by the Justice Department (Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft having recused himself because as a Senate candidate he took got Enron contributions) for possible criminal wrongdoing.
Enron's affairs and multiplicity of partnerships were murky beyond the comprehension of a lot of supposed experts. But the remaining questions aren't complicated? Who benefited? Where did all that money go? Who knew what and when? Where was the Securities and Exchange Commission? Why was Wall Street so complacent and lazy?
After the hearings and the public lamentations, a few hands will be slapped. There are rule changes in the works. Perhaps a new law or two will pass. There will be vows of "never again."
But it will happen again. It always has.
Ann McFeatters is National Bureau chief for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio. Her e-mail address is amcfeatters@
nationalpress.com. 
Scruples are not Italian noodles. Ethics in business is important. Ethical people in business are valuable. Those who leave ethics at the boardroom door are to be reviled and should be kicked, penniless, out into the gutter or sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in community service, preferably outdoors in the mud. Government has to do a better job of protecting the public from the bad guys -- not just those with guns and bombs, but those with disappearing ledger ink, double books and false promises of profits as far as the eye can see. Whistleblowers are special people who should not be maligned but honored for their courage and perspicacity. Just as everyone who rides planes has to be wary and ready to act if necessary, employees who know something is wrong at work have to be willing to stand up and shout without fear of losing everything. Keeping secret records of important government policy meetings, as Hillary Rodham Clinton did with her health care task force, and as Vice President Dick Cheney is doing with his energy task force, including meetings with Enron executives, always backfires. Bigger is not always better. Often, it's a lot worse.