Reading the news this week, it occurs to me that not only does history repeat itself, but the intervals between repetitions are growing shorter.
It was announced Wednesday that an indictment against former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay is due to be unsealed. Mr. Lay – “Kenny Boy” to George W. Bush – was one of the president’s top-grossing fundraisers in the 2000 campaign. He was rewarded with something approaching veto power over federal energy regulators, if not power over selecting the regulators himself.
Enron’s financial officer, Andrew Fastow has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors; Mr. Lay’s right-hand man Jeff Skilling was indicted 35 times in February.
Mr. Lay proclaimed his innocence Wednesday, saying he was duped by Mr. Fastow’s outrageous overstatements of Enron’s earnings. (Headline: Major Bush Contributor: ‘I Was a Dupe’) The newspapers Wednesday did not say whether any charges will be leveled at Mr. Lay for Enron’s part in the fabricated energy crisis in California in early 2001 (just as those Bush-Cheney-Lay energy regulators were taking over). It’s now known that Enron traders (and others) deliberately choked off California’s energy supply, laughing about leaving old ladies stranded in the dark. Remember that.
Eventually, Enron’s lies could not cover the gaping deficits and the company crashed, taking down billions of dollars of investors’ money, much of it in pension funds. The executives got away with tens of millions in bloated salaries and bonuses. Remember that too – average Joes lose billions, executives walk away wealthy.
The other news this week – and every week – is Iraq. Now that L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer has been hustled out of the country, the real transition begins, sort of. It turns out several orders Mr. Bremer signed are still in effect and will be for the foreseeable future. Included among them are orders opening Iraq’s state-owned businesses to foreign investors, contrary to international standards forbidding the restructuring an occupied country’s economy. In other words, “Here’s your country, whip those insurgents into line, negotiate a settlement among your ethnic and religious factions and get the trash picked up. By the way, we now own everything of value.” There’s no end in sight for the military occupation and the economic occupation is just getting started.
Meanwhile, electric power in Iraq is sporadic at best, water service is worse and sewage is worst of all. Saddam’s people managed to cobble an infrastructure together in four months after the first Gulf War; it’s been 14 months since W played dress-up on the aircraft carrier and in Baghdad, old ladies are still stranded in the dark. Remember?
Once again, Bush-Cheney contributors and cronies – this time Halliburton, Bechtel and Fluor – are getting fat on the absence of government oversight. They’ve learned well. There was alarm in the media and the public during the California energy crisis – couldn’t be avoided, it was the price to be paid for getting a Republican into the governor’s mansion. This time they’re playing it safe. If Iraq is in a state of permanent rolling blackouts no one will ask if the system is being manipulated by contractors who charge top dollar and fob off third-rate work on the Iraqis. They know they can count on American racism to pin the blame on the brown people. (“Oh well, what do you expect from Arabs?”) No one knows when Iraq’s reconstruction will be complete, but it’s a safe bet it will be years after Halliburton, et al have sucked out all the money to be had and walked away leaving the job unfinished.
Once again, average Joes are out billions, one billion a week and counting. Little Vermont (pop. 608,000) has contributed $233 million to the Iraq war so far. Just like Enron, the executives will cheat the investors (i.e. taxpayers) and walk away wealthy. If you’re inclined to look back 20 years, you see this trend beginning with George Bush’s Arbusto Oil Company, in which the investors all lost their shirts and George W. jumped out with a golden parachute.
Perhaps that was the secret Cheney energy plan: try the Arbusto model with Enron in California, then take the show on the road. Don’t forget – as if you could – the road show has come home and is now playing at your corner gas station, where two-dollars-a-gallon gas prices have settled in for a long engagement.
Getting Layed
Reading the news this week, it occurs to me that not only does history repeat itself, but the intervals between repetitions are growing shorter.
It was announced Wednesday that an indictment against former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay is due to be unsealed. Mr. Lay – “Kenny Boy” to George W. Bush – was one of the president’s top-grossing fundraisers in the 2000 campaign. He was rewarded with something approaching veto power over federal energy regulators, if not power over selecting the regulators himself.
Enron’s financial officer, Andrew Fastow has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating with prosecutors; Mr. Lay’s right-hand man Jeff Skilling was indicted 35 times in February.
Mr. Lay proclaimed his innocence Wednesday, saying he was duped by Mr. Fastow’s outrageous overstatements of Enron’s earnings. (Headline: Major Bush Contributor: ‘I Was a Dupe’) The newspapers Wednesday did not say whether any charges will be leveled at Mr. Lay for Enron’s part in the fabricated energy crisis in California in early 2001 (just as those Bush-Cheney-Lay energy regulators were taking over). It’s now known that Enron traders (and others) deliberately choked off California’s energy supply, laughing about leaving old ladies stranded in the dark. Remember that.
Eventually, Enron’s lies could not cover the gaping deficits and the company crashed, taking down billions of dollars of investors’ money, much of it in pension funds. The executives got away with tens of millions in bloated salaries and bonuses. Remember that too – average Joes lose billions, executives walk away wealthy.
The other news this week – and every week – is Iraq. Now that L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer has been hustled out of the country, the real transition begins, sort of. It turns out several orders Mr. Bremer signed are still in effect and will be for the foreseeable future. Included among them are orders opening Iraq’s state-owned businesses to foreign investors, contrary to international standards forbidding the restructuring an occupied country’s economy. In other words, “Here’s your country, whip those insurgents into line, negotiate a settlement among your ethnic and religious factions and get the trash picked up. By the way, we now own everything of value.” There’s no end in sight for the military occupation and the economic occupation is just getting started.
Meanwhile, electric power in Iraq is sporadic at best, water service is worse and sewage is worst of all. Saddam’s people managed to cobble an infrastructure together in four months after the first Gulf War; it’s been 14 months since W played dress-up on the aircraft carrier and in Baghdad, old ladies are still stranded in the dark. Remember?
Once again, Bush-Cheney contributors and cronies – this time Halliburton, Bechtel and Fluor – are getting fat on the absence of government oversight. They’ve learned well. There was alarm in the media and the public during the California energy crisis – couldn’t be avoided, it was the price to be paid for getting a Republican into the governor’s mansion. This time they’re playing it safe. If Iraq is in a state of permanent rolling blackouts no one will ask if the system is being manipulated by contractors who charge top dollar and fob off third-rate work on the Iraqis. They know they can count on American racism to pin the blame on the brown people. (“Oh well, what do you expect from Arabs?”) No one knows when Iraq’s reconstruction will be complete, but it’s a safe bet it will be years after Halliburton, et al have sucked out all the money to be had and walked away leaving the job unfinished.
Once again, average Joes are out billions, one billion a week and counting. Little Vermont (pop. 608,000) has contributed $233 million to the Iraq war so far. Just like Enron, the executives will cheat the investors (i.e. taxpayers) and walk away wealthy. If you’re inclined to look back 20 years, you see this trend beginning with George Bush’s Arbusto Oil Company, in which the investors all lost their shirts and George W. jumped out with a golden parachute.
Perhaps that was the secret Cheney energy plan: try the Arbusto model with Enron in California, then take the show on the road. Don’t forget – as if you could – the road show has come home and is now playing at your corner gas station, where two-dollars-a-gallon gas prices have settled in for a long engagement.
(c) Mark Floegel, 2004