While having to listen to the CEO, CFO, and COO rationalize their behavior was revolting enough, the other employees — most of whom will remain forever nameless
— are as equally deserving of long prison sentences and/or the firing squad. These gullible, sanctimonious men accepted the official cheerleading as gospel and proceeded to ruin thousands of lives in the process. Take the California energy crisis, one of the vilest results of deregulation in U.S. history. To believe Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing liars, the rolling blackouts occurred because “environmentalist wackos” refused to allow more power plants to be built, as they obviously cared more about the spotted owl than everyday people. They even helped tar the Governor with the moniker “Gray-Out Davis,” thereby ensuring his putsch-like removal from office a short time later. In reality, the shortfalls were wholly artificial and cruelly calculated; brought about by manipulations at Enron to create demand and drive up prices. But don’t take my word for it, listen to theaudio tapes of Enron employees who discuss cheating grandmothers out of their money and rooting for wildfires because they were bringing millions of dollars to the company they so slavishly admired. People suffered and the state of California lost billions, and these paid enforcers of Enron doctrine are directly, unavoidably responsible. And yet we still have policy wonks who insist that deregulation works. And sure it does, only not for the public.
One of the few heroes in this mess is the late Cliff Baxter, an Enron executive who thankfully committed suicide as the pressure started to build. Remarkably, he felt a pang of conscience (or so he says in his suicide note), but I have a feeling it was the prospect of facing a future without his mansion and numerous cars. Again, he blew his head off, so