Los Angeles Public Television, KCET, recently ran Alex Gibney’s documentary, “Independent Lens: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.” The film discloses the corporate corruption behind Enron- the American Corporation that fooled California into thinking there was an energy shortage producing rolling blackouts in 2001.
The blackouts were an ingenious scam on California engineered by Extremely Clever American Corporate Greed. First, cronies in the California legislature – DE-regulated- Government Control of Electrical Energy – what was once Commonwealth Edison for all, became privatized energy grids, and one private sector controller was Enron- and their traders had access to redirecting electricity out of the state, or to turn it off for a few hours. And they did, in a way that looks as if a financial terrorist seized control of California’s energy.
The fabricated blackouts rocketed energy prices in California. Electricity that typically went for $30 to $40 a megawatt/hour, giddy Enron traders sold back at $1000 megawatt/hour to the People of California. So why is this 7 year old story still relevant?
Americans, we do not have an energy problem. We have a White Collar Crime Problem! Unscrupulous greed by the winner who takes all in privatized corporate conglomerates..is alive and well…functioning in the brilliant minds of American MBA’s and happening AGAIN!.. in the American sub-prime mortgage crisis.
According to a private mortgage lender in Los Angeles, “Lenders were telling people how to create paper fraud. Mortgage brokers showed people how to overstate their income and have the value of their property assessed for more than it was worth. Now, a lot of my colleagues are hurting- having to sell a Porsche or a second home.”
Bethany McLean co-author of, “The Smartest Guy’s in the Room, the Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron,‘ describes the guilty white collar criminal: “At first it is just stretching the numbers to make a deal go through, then it works, and it continues to be done to meet the next quarter earnings or to hide a financial loss. The typical white-collar criminal gets away with most of his fraud until he gets caught, and when he does, he actually believes that he has done nothing wrong.”
The sickness behind Enron and the Mortgage crisis is an Ethical one. It reveals How Greed Can Corrupt America on All Levels. “At some point, employees, accountants, lawyers, or legislators could have said ‘this is not right, no way- these numbers are not legitimate,’ but No One Did,” described an ex-Enron executive. And she warns, “this can Absolutely Happen Again.”
What should disgust America is how Corporate America has no problem exploiting its own people for profit. If a few clever businessmen can get rich at the expense of a not-so-clever American Public- they will – without reservation. Enron is a recent story of how an Oligarchy manipulated our Electrical Energy System. This sounds like a story coming from an ex-Soviet Republic now run by Mafia, or even worse, an energy trick that the Soviet’s engineered, and American big business copied.
2 comments:
Humankind sustainability and improving the World, Society, and its Resources! R1
Yet who can the world trust to be idealistic and moral enough to help all of humanity and the environment, and at the same time, be practical enough to make extremely difficult decisions that can and will harm a great deal of people?
In only 12 years – between 1987 and 1999 – the world’s population increased by 20 percent, from 5 to 6 billion. This growth, in only 12 years – between 1987 and 1999 – the world’s population increased by 20 percent, from 5 to 6 billion. This growth, combined with dramatic increases in per capita resource consumption, contributes to increasingly serious social and environmental problems.
These problems will only worsen over the next 50 years as the projected world population nears 12 billion and developing nations become more industrialized. We are using finite nonrenewable resources at an ever-increasing rate, with little regard for future generations. Facing these facts, we are compelled to ask: are Earth and humankind sustainable?
People, governments and industries worldwide must adopt policies and practices that promote sustainable development.
Increased life expectancies, births to American citizens, and legal and illegal immigration, if continued, will dramatically increase the population of the US in the 21st century. In addition, the number of Americans aged 65 and over is projected to increase from 35 million in 2000 to 78 million in 2050 (Schneider 1999), and the present 4 million American citizens at age 65 will expand to 18 million by 2050. Unfortunately, many demographers believe that these projections are underestimates (Schneider 1999).
The increasing world population and the advancing technology worldwide is causing the accelerated depletion of natural resources and are creating genuine concern for maintaining our and future generations way of life.
The current depletion of fossil fuels is of major concern to world population today.
Any interruption in such commodity will cause a major economic downturn worldwide.
The issue is not to panic or cause panic, but to educate the public and the government the urgency of the impending crises and to take appropriate action to prevent such a catastrophe.
We have the science, knowledge and technology to overcome these impending energy crises.
We should accelerate our investment in research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency, utilize energy efficient materials and systems to construct any new structures and in remodeling and rehabbing existing structures.
The amount of resources and funds should be a least a trillion dollar, this is a potential crisis of enormous magnitude, and we must utilize those funds wisely and carefully.
If we all pull together, the people the government and the scientific community, we can overcome these potential crises and enhance our living on earth. We must cut the political bickering and look at what is good for our country, with no hidden agenda. We must stay unified. We shall prevail.
In addition all we have to do is show the corporate world the financial benefit they can derive from such investment in those technology and we will see them all running to join the task of renewable energy at an affordable cost.
Yehuda Draiman
PS
What if humankind continues its present unsustainable practices for the remainder of the 21st century? What if nature’s laws stop the exponential growth of the human population and its concomitant destruction of natural capital and ecosystem services? If humankind continues unsustainable practices until it finds the answers to these last two ‘what ifs,’ this collapse will demonstrate that the human mind was an evolutionary failure. One hopes that reason guided by evidence, compassion, and ethics will make these two ‘what ifs’ merely speculative visions.
But, what augurs well for the future is that people are taking cognizance of what matters to the very future of humankind –
a sustainable and just world.
Be careful in what portfolio you invest in, some of those funds may end up in the hands of terrorists who want to kill you and your family.
we're f-ed.
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