Can these guys and their superiors be charged with attacks on the homeland or treason? I mean, this is some serious sh_t. More Enron Tapes, More Gloating June 8, 2004 The Department of Justice reportedly has thousands of hours of Enron employees recorded during the West Coast power crisis. Now, some in Congress want all the tapes released. "I want to make sure that no federal agency suppresses this information, makes the case harder for us to get relief," says U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. After CBS broadcast the voices of Enron energy traders gloating over the crisis they helped create, more tapes were released. In one tape, an employee says, "You gotta think the economy is going to f------g get crushed, man. This is like a recession waiting to f-----g happen." The tapes show Enron tried to bring California to its knees. Elsewhere on the tapes, another employee says, "This is where California breaks." "Yeah, it sure does man," says another. And they proposed to do that by exporting energy out of the state so the company could drive up prices even more. "What we need to do is to help in the cause of, ah, downfall of California," an employee is heard saying on the tapes. "You guys need to pull your megawatts out of California on a daily basis." "They're on the ropes today," says another employee. "I exported like a f------g 400 megs." "Wow,'' says another employee, "f--k 'em, right!" Traders can be heard manipulating the market, using now-infamous schemes with names like death star, ricochet and fat boy. One employee is heard asking, "You want to do some fat boys or, or whatever, man, you know, take advantage of it." In fat boy, Enron traders used fake power sales to hide megawatts, shrinking the supply of energy and driving up prices. They also used the oldest trick in the book: lies. "It's called lies. It's all how well you can weave these lies together, Shari, alright, so," an employee is heard saying. The other employee says, "I feel like I'm being corrupted now." The first employee adds, "No, this is marketing," "OK.'' The tapes could affect dozens of cases already filed against the company by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. "If these are ever heard by a jury, they're going get strung up," says Lockyer. After hearing the tapes, the state's two U.S. senators demanded an immediate $8.9 billion refund. At a recent hearing Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. said, "All I can tell you is you have to listen to what's happening out there to ordinary people who you are responsible to help through this." With Enron and other major energy companies in bankruptcy, big refunds are unlikely. But the tapes could provide the evidence states and cities need to break contracts they were forced to sign at the height of the energy crisis.
pretty crazy huh giff? Did you see jon stewart's take on this last night? http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=78280
No, I didn't. And you know for some reason those links never work for me. I always get routed to the Not Logged/Do not have permission page when I click on them.
You just have to re-enter your user name and password And the link is actually a thread I started a week or so ago about this very subject.
Either that or change it to bbs2.fans.net or bbs.clutchfans.net, whichever is your usual. Each domain requires that you be logged in. Hopefully, Clutch will eventually put all these into one single domain to avoid that problem.
The callousness...the language...the "f*ck 'em" attitude does not surprise me. I think you'd find it relatively commonplace in many potentially lucrative trading environments. In various countries. I've seen traders toast fires, crop failures and political unrest. But the manipulations are beyond serious. This is the meat. I hope those f*ckers get NAILED. Jail-time baby! No mercy. If you want 'free markets' you simply have to abide by the spirit of the rules. Abuse cannot be tolerated if you're to have any credibility. The market system only works where you have legitimate competition.
I could care less about the profanity. It's the conspiring to undermine the economy of California that enrages me. Imagine for a moment if agents of a foriegn government were engaging in these types of actions. This is nothing short of economic sabotage.
Other countries do play with economies.....when a country weakens its currency to help it export to the US, its the same thing. Of course I agree any manipulation done by these traders should be punished. Other than that, rooting for things to happen (fires, etc.) is not atypical of anyone with a vested interest in something...
I don't think the traders had any ill-will towards California, or malice in bringing down her economy. THis was purely price manipulation with intent to profit. The Californian economy was simply collateral damage. I hope the trading community, and the 'free market' proponents concur with hammering these guys. It's one thing to place your bets and hope they turn out to your advantage. It's quite a different thing to fix the race. Unless they believe massive regulation is the only realistically workable model (ie that these things just sort of happen now and then if the system allows it), those in favour of the free markets should be shouting from the rooftops that this ain't the way it's supposed to work, and that these guys were so far offside, they deserve a little quiet time in the Big House .
I can't believe these scumbags didn't know they were being recorded. Most big companies record all their phone calls. I know mine does. I hope they get what they deserve.
