Directions: Using your film analysis worksheet from "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and the other sources that have been distributed on this topic, complete a persuasive blog of no fewer than 250 words on the question below:
Were the business practices of Enron and it’s World Com subsidies mainly a result of poor regulation in the national economy OR an intentional case of “white collar” deceit and greed?
The entire film is available for viewing free here
If that link doesn't work, copy and paste the link into your browser http://www.videosift.com/video/Enron-The-Smartest-Guys-in-the-Room or Google search for "enron the smartest guys in the room video" - it will be the first link that comes up (videoswift.com)
This blog is due before class begins on Tuesday, November 17. As a reminder, the end of the marking period is 11/25. We will have one more blog before then. Because we missed a lot of class this grading period, the FOUR blogs assigned for second marking period must be completed - no freebie.
For EXTRA CREDIT, you may additionaly write a one page (300 word, typed) film synopsis OR poster of one of the following films:
Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Corporation, (2005), Boiler Room (2000- I own this one, you may borrow it), Wall Street (1987), or Capitalism: A Love Story (2009 - still in theatres.)
I have included links to the films on Independent Movie Data Base, but you can watch most of them through netflix (if your family has an account) or Amazon Online on Demand for less than $4. If you're having trouble finding any of them, let me know and I'll try to help.
Your extra credit paper or poster should include a summary of the plot, how it relates to concepts we have covered in class and explain wether or not you would reccomend it to peers.
white collar is refered to as a worker who works in a semi-profesional office. enron was a white collar buisness because they decieved basically everyone who didnt work at or for enron.enron had two oil traders bid for them on the oil that enron had. the enron oil never went down but always up. the phony book keeping added to enron's in proper accounting policies.enron didnt want any trace left of their big scam so they had their company shred the real acounting and book keepings. the oil scandel was the most basic form of cheating in stocks. the two oil traders shwed fake papers and left a fake name for the people to follow
ReplyDeleteENRON as a whole is to be widely seen as a giant company who fell to the hand of corruption. The company ethics of ENRON were in-retrospect improper business practices. The executives of the energy giant converted/sold 50+ million dollars of ENRON stock (under-the-table). ENRON made a subsidy company to further extend their shady mal-business-practice. At first the stocks were booming due to the introduction of the Internet to offer a new way of acquiring stock; buying/selling. They came fourth with large ideas that many economists would call huge impact risks. This process was called "mark to market trading" - making investments with projected profits. In other words these investments weren't a sure fire success and there was no actual way of determining it's fail rate without implementing it. Therefore world COM was set into motion and began to show outstanding projections upon its implementation. However speculation began to grow on how ENRON makes its money and the responses received were vague. With all this evidence gathered as well as ENRONS inability to provide statements confirming where and how they receive money. This proves that their actions were not by mistake, the executives were cashing in on huge profits. The term white collar adheres to all the callous acts committed by this company. In that the company committed a white-collar crime and it's pleas of innocence should be dismissed. The ENRON scandal should be known as the most defraudulent act ever committed.
ReplyDeleteQuestion:Why didn't the Bush administration go under investigation after the scandal due to their strong relationship?
Jonathan Ayoub
Block:F
Enron was a white collared company that was controlled by money hungry tyrants. Enron used "mark to market trading" to partly profit so much. This system of investing was gambling with the companies money. They estimated the amount of money they would make the next year based on previous years, to use that money on investments aswell to maximize profit. Enron dipped into retirement funds, and fired workers that were not preforming to the optimum potential. This made the Company very competitive. Enron shredded their financial records that would show the loopholes they have exploited.
ReplyDeleteLuke Opulski
The business practices of Enron should definitely be considered white collar crime. Enron was very cynical in their approach to get their money. Doing this out of greed enron would send the power of electricity to certain parts of the country who paid the most for it. The less of supply there is of something the more in demand it is and who ever gave the highest bid for it would receive it. They did this so the states and cities that would pay the highest for the electricity would receive it until they got a higher bid and would give it to that place. They made it seem as if the energy was scarce so that was their reason for raising the prices. They wanted to see who would pay the most amount for the energy so they could eliminate all the places that couldnt compete with the higher prices.
ReplyDeleteBrian Lopez
Enron, a one of a kind company, fell to greed and corruption. This company was one of the most wealthiest corporations during its time of reign. Unfortunately, this corporation turned three hundred and sixty degrees as the CEO's and executives became greedy. During the company's existence, the executives were making triple the amount that they were supposed to because of illegal deals and trades. The expression "Cook the Books" was highly used in this scandal during the trials. The executives were creating false investors and adding it to their books, to create a bigger income. This company has fallen due to bad regulation within the company itself. It was not the white collar deceit and greed because the white collared workers were not the ones making the profit from trading and dealing illegally, in fact, most of them were unaware of it. The deceit and greed laid in the hands of the CEO's and the executives of Enron.
ReplyDelete-Brandon DiMatteo
ReplyDeleteEnron's business practices should be considered an international case of "white collar" deceit and greed. The business was ran by greedy people who were money hungry. While in charge of Enron, they held improper accounting records. As well as kept phoney book keeping, stating a loss of $3.8 billion. Enron has recorded phone calls, stating how they will do what they can to keep the money coming into the business. Enron would make false black outs and convienced billions of California residents that there was limited energy supply. Thus making the people of California wanting to pay more for energy, which then went to Enron. Enron also had many finacial documents shredded to hide evidence of what was going on, this of which ended up making 20 million Enron employees loose their jobs. Enron would take money from the company and hide it on islands then state they needed a bail out. Yet the many times Enron executives were questions by the court, they failed to provide evidence stating none of which happened. With everything that has happened 2 billion dollars worth of peoples pensions had disappeared. It took many years for Enron to become as wealthy as it did, yet only 24 hours to be in debt. Many people have their own opinion on this situation but in my opinion they are guilty.
ReplyDeleteVanessa Cucuzza
F: block
The Enron Scandal was intentionally a white collar crime because of greed and deceit. The large company used bailout and government money to get themselves out of debt. Enron also used this money to pay people back for loans. This company fell to greed and corruption. To create a bigger income for Enron, they added fake investors to the files on the computer. The Enron scandal involves both illegal and immoral activity and the courts of law determined the precise extent of civil and criminal problem that increases. The collapse of the Enron Corporation was one of the most glaring examples of corporate crime and falsification of corporate data in recent history. Enron filed for bankruptcy protection, listing some $13.1 billion in liabilities and $24.7 billion in assets. Eventually, they were bankrupt, but used money that was not theirs. This is known as stealing and falsification.
ReplyDeleteDana Pistilli
C-Block
The Enron Scandal was a result of white collar deceit and greed, as well as a result of poor government regulation. Enron operated on the principle of Mark to Market Trading, which allowed the company to trade stocks based on predicted future prices. Most of Enron's money was stored in Swiss bank accounts. These practices made the company look like it was profiting, when in reality, Enron was going bankrupt. Before the company filed for bankruptcy, executives sold over $30 million of their Enron stock while encouraging investors and the general public to buy Enron stock.
ReplyDeleteThe California Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001 was directly caused by Enron. Enron owned the West Coast power grid, but did not produce the electricity. Enron Traders would cause rolling blackouts by exporting electricity out of state. The traders would also tell power plants to shut down. The power in California would then be restored, at a much higher price. Creating an energy shortage to increase profits is highly unethical and inhumane. In the end, Enron traders swindled over $2 billion from the State of California.
The poor government regulation over the free market energy industry also contributed to the Enron scandal. Enron was the one of the largest contributors to the Republican Party. This gave Enron political support. The corporation was able to convince California Governor Pete Wilson to deregulate the California power grid in 1996. When the California Energy Crisis cane into full swing, the federal government did not institute a cap on energy prices because it did not believe Enron was the cause of the crisis. When California Governor Gray Davis demanded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission investigate Enron, the commission did not take action. The federal government allowed Enron to continue their unethical business practices.
The business practices of Enron and it’s World Com subsidies were mainly a result of “white collar” deceit and greed. In 2001, Enron was the leading energy company in America. Executives of Enron mislead their costumers by creating loopholes and scamming them out of their money. However the executives of this major corporation did not think what consequences might come from their actions. By swindling their costumers out of their money, executives found themselves with no jobs due to the shut down of the company. In a matter of two weeks, Enron was bankrupt and the government had to bail them out with tax payers bailout money. While this major corporation was put into court, employees who were blackmailed by working for this company testified against these executives. From my standpoint, it seems as though the executives were not only at fault. The owners of Enron are also to put to blame. Being as big of a company as it was Enron was receiving money from every end. It was only logical that people would want to work for that company to make tons of money. The owners of Enron should have been smarter regarding who they put into their company to work for them. As well as using this method, the owners should have been more involved with what was going on within Enron. This whole crime was intentional due to deceit and greed over funds and finances.
ReplyDeleteKaterina Mitilineos
F Block
Enron knew what they were doing they just never thought they would go down, Enron was a "white collar" case. There has been more evidence of them being proven guilty then law corruption. Enron had converted 30 million and plus stocks. There had been improper accounting records, and no excuses to go along with it. Phoney book keepings has held place which has a lose of $3.8 billion. Enron was caught shredding finical documents, which costed many employees their jobs. Enron had been questioned about the business, false records and faulty incidences, and had no evidence to support their arguments. Enron had blacklisted many who questioned their business. Artificial power shortages had been made to bring money into the business. Enron had made many people of California believe there was limited supply of energy which made many people pay more just to have energy. When many incidents occurred they would encourage these incidents because they get money for all the energy used afterwords. These people were selfish and greedy. Enron, however clever, they thought they were, their white collared crimes have been exposed.
ReplyDeleteFrancisko Kim
F: Block
Though, the poor regulation of the national economy could be blamed for such a scandal as Enron; Enron is to be blamed for being able to find such loopholes in a poorly regulated system. The scandal was obviously due to deceit and greed for many reasons. One obvious ploy used by Enron was the rolling blackouts in California. The rolling blackouts were purposely launched by Enron in the California power grid in order to triple the amount of profit Enron would receive from consumers of electricity. By lying about the threat of rolling blackouts they had siphoned almost two million dollars a day from the California economy. Due to Enron's greed they had used things such as fires to cover for the amount of blackouts taking place. This plan was strategic that it was given code names such as, "Death Star" and "Fat Boy." The deceit of Enron didn't stop in California the fall of Enron was also do to the mirage Enron had created of being a successful functioning business. The company had lied about the amount of money actually lost with failed electricity companies in India which, was largely due to the phony book keeping. Phony book keeping had covered up for 3.8 billion dollars lost. Enron's greed was also displayed when George W. Bush widely protested against the governor of California Gray. This was done by Enron due to their large contribution to the Bush administration. Gray at the time was a potential threat to George W. Bush's campaign so Enron was able to force an Gray as an opposition to Bush. By doing so Enron had gained more liberty and freedom due to the downfall of Governor Gray. Enron was truly a "House of Cards" because, the company had wasted all their money by using Mark to Market trading. With all their greed of projected profits they had to devise new schemes to make money which ultimately failed as the company had been demolished. From the aftermath of the demise of Enron 20,000 people were left without jobs and two billion dollars were lost in pensions. This scandal is the epitome of greed and deceit shown in corporate America.
ReplyDeleteHo Lee
F Block
The buisness practices or Enron and its world com subsidies was mainly a result of intentional case of white collar deceit and greed. Enron was controlled by greedy, money hungry and deceiving investors. Enron cheated and lied they used bailout and government money to pay thier way out of debt. Not only did they try to create a higher uncome for themselves by adding fake investors to files on the computer but they also dipped into retirement funds and fired many workers causing the company to become very competitive. Enron fell to greed and corruption involving illegal and immoral activity. Enron shredded all thier financial records that was evidence to show the loopholes they have exploited. Enron was found guilty of stealing, using money that was not theirs and eventually Enron became bankrupt.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Wong
C block
Jackie King
ReplyDeleteC block
The scandal that occurred within ENRON is definitely white collar greed. The large energy company found many loopholes to allow stock investors to keep buying stock. Many of the major CEOs persuaded people to keep buying stock as the executives would start selling their own stock. ENRON had many questionable business practices like selling stocks and shredding all of the files. Many questioned why ENRON couldn’t produce earning statements, because the book was all fake. ENRON kept reassuring the public that the business was doing better than ever when in reality it was falling right in front of everyone’s eyes. When Jeff Skilling stepped down from CEO at ENRON everyone knew something was wrong, everyone questioned why he was leaving and he responded it was personal matters. To help increase their income, executives created fake investors and even pulled money out of people’s retirement pension.
Of all the loopholes within this world effecting scandal, the most questionable one is: did everyone know what was happening at ENRON? Sharon Watkins confessed that the numbers in the book didn’t add up and doesn’t understand why anyone would sign to agree with the numbers. The real curiosity comes in when the lawyers defended these now millionaire executives, and the members at ENRON who claim to have nothing to do with the scandal, why didn’t they confess? Could it be members were getting paid to keep their mouths closed? Banks, many loans were taken out of banks and the banks too must have had a sense of where all this money was going to. ENRONs collapse led to the loss of jobs and many retirement pensions.
Enron’s business practices a product of intentional “white-collar” deceit and greed. Their business practiced phony bookkeeping, and created false records. World Com had covered up $3.8 billion through this process. One example of Enron’s poor practices would be using mark to market trading. Mark to market trading is using projected profits and making investments with those projected profits. Projected profits would only show how much could be made if the company continues to do well, however they fail to perceive that it is possible for it to decline. In addition, people who figured out or found out what Enron was pursuing were discriminated against when they revealed to the public what the company was doing, if they weren’t already fired. Then Enron began to fire people based on their performance. The Performance Review Committee ranked employees based on a one to five scale, people voted with ones or near that range would keep their jobs. Through this process of elimination, 15% of employees lost their jobs. This included two billion dollars worth of pensions. Twenty thousand people who lost their jobs, then the money the company used to pay for employment goes toward bonuses and raises for the people still working. When the government found out how Enron was operating, the auditor Arthur Andersen was ordered to shred financial documents and did not stop until about a week later, destroying an abundance of evidence. Enron was a white collar and corporate crime, along with fraud. They intentionally did played around with the financial and accounting documents until they were found out. Enron’s traders and investors are not innocent because they knew what they were doing and how to do it until it’s final collapse.
ReplyDeleteAllison Lee
Block F
The business practices of the ENRON scandal and its World Com subsidies were mainly a result of “white collar” deceit and greed. ENRON and its comrades believed that with their slick strategies they would be able to fool the world. For starters, ENRON began small. They began by finding loopholes in the in poorly system regulated countries. Meaning, they went for the countries that weren't so stringent. For example, ENRON "attacked" California causing rolling blackouts. ENRON purposely launched the rolling blackouts in the California power grid in order to triple the amount of profit ENRON would receive from consumers of electricity. They lied about the threat of the blackouts thus gaining almost two million dollars a day from the California economy. They also used strategies like fire to cover the amount of blackouts that were taking place which they called "Death Star" or "Fat Boy". But no they didn’t stop there. In 2001, ENRON was the leading energy company in America. They began their own businesses which lead to many consequences. That company had lied about the actual amount of money lost. This was because of the phony book keeping practices they were committing. The phony bookkeeping covered up for the 3.8 dollars that were lost because of ENRONS obvious deceit and greed. Executive, traders, and everyone else involved in the ENRON scandal suffered the consequences by becoming bankrupt. They also suffered the humiliation when discovered of their foolish crimes. They knew that what they were doing was wrong, but they thought they would be able to get away with it. That was the problem.
ReplyDeleteKristine Munoz
F-Block
The business practices of Enron and it’s World Com subsidies are mainly results of an intentional case of “white collar” deceit and greed, although it also symbolized minor failure of corporation governance.When the Enron corporation crashed and their scandals were exposed, it became clear that their actions were solely for the purpose of receiving much fortune and not serving the public. The collapse wiped out over 2 billion dollars estimated pension for it"s workers retirement plan, creating millions of outcry all over the nation. Enron deceived the market by speculating much higher credit and finance than they really had, promoting themselves and gaining much public interest. Two executive members of the Enron corporation were secretly stealing millions of dollars from the company and storing them in personal accounts, the same two members allegedly performed in insider trading. Due to Enron's increasing credit and stock, investors were constantly persuaded to invest in the company, which worked out well. As time passed and Enron's fiscal began to plummet, it's executive tried concealing it's flaws by partnering up with other major companies, through phony book keeping as well as borrowing immense loans, preventing the public from learning about it's breakdown and also disguising themselves as a highly profitable company.Enron's executives also began to sell large amount of stocks, almost up to seventy millions, in order to repay cash advances on lines of credit also quickly disposing stocks. these are all reasons to justify the Enron and it’s World Com subsidies scandal as an hazardous corporate crime.
ReplyDeleteOla Afolabi
F-block
11-16-09
The main cause behind the Enron scandal was greed. Executives of Enron saw the early signs that Enron that the company was going down. Every scandal is contacted to cover ups done by the top executives. Whether it was cooking the cooking the books or mark to market problems. These troubles were well known but Enron executives would insist that there was nothing wrong with the company, and would then not punish but tell their workers to 'keep making them millions.' Executives greed made them want money whether it was obtained by legeal methods or not, just as long as their pockets were filled. The Enron executives drained the personal funds and pensions in order to keep their own savings and money in check. Greed replaced the better economic judgment of the Enron executives and for this Enron went bankrupted. The face of Enron was not only destroyed but so was the lifes and futures of thousands of Enron workers, all for the greed.
ReplyDeleteKatie McSherry
Block:C
The business Practices of Enron were both a result of poor regulation and “white collar” deceit and greed. The People mainly to blame were the Chief Executives whose main purpose was to earn the most money. They twisted laws and regulation of their likings. The “white collared” workers also played a part in the Enron scandal. They followed the directions of their executives and did all they could to pinch the pennies out of every living creature. The power shortages in the State of California are a huge example of how they controlled the prices of electricity. They began to use abuse their powers over the power grid. They knew they had to keep this up because Enron’s future depended on the income based from this operation. Enron was going into loss and was covering up its act by using false accounts. The government did not look into their off books spending. This was one of their huge responsibility and they failed to take care of it. Despite the Bankrupt state Enron was in their CEO’s received bonuses based on future profits that they would make. The government and the company had a part in the Scandal and both are to blame.
ReplyDeleteReuben.G
F-Block
The business practices of Enron and its World Com subsidies were undoubtedly an intentional case of "white collar" deceit and greed. For about one hundred years, Enron had been supplying America with its energy-based needs by providing the public with useful products at reasonable prices, making Enron one of the biggest, most successful, most profitable corporations in the US. However, in the 90s and early years of this decade, this success had apparently gone to their heads. Enron Executives, in search of new ways, to make a profit, encouraged employees to be creative and find new ways for Enron to make a profit; and so, through this, Mark to Market Trading was born. Executives would predict how much of a profit they would receive in the future, and, depending on that, they would use their profits accordingly to increase profits and, hopefully, expand their business. This idea was stolen by Enron Executives from an Enron employee. Unfortunately for them, they did not foresee the failed expansion into India, where the nation simply could not afford Enron’s services. Since construction and planning had already gone into the expansion, the project was a colossal waste of profits. After such a debacle, Enron made yet another turn for the worse in California by making get-rich-quick schemes. When Enron took ownership of California’s power grid, the people suffered horrendously. As a way of gaining a profit, Enron employees cut the power for many people in California, leading to frequent blackouts and store closures. This act was covered up by the idea that California didn’t have enough electricity to sustain itself. In the meantime, du to scarcity of electricity, prices for electricity soared, resulting in California’s $38 billion deficit and Enron employees’, especially the Executives’, exceedingly large wealth.
ReplyDeleteBy the time Kenneth Lay had become the new CEO of Enron, replacing Jeffrey Skilling, Enron was already going downhill, and all Kenny Boy did was make the fall steeper. Him and the other Executives took their nonpublic, material information to their advantage and prepared themselves for Enron’s end. After covering up billions of dollars in losses with improper accounting and selling +$30 million in Enron stocks, the Enron Executives were set. The Enron failure came as a surprise to all, and all the employees in Enron lost everything, but the only people who made a profit were the Executives. From the creation of Mark to Market Trading to the imminent crash, Enron was run only by those driven by greed.
The fault does not lay entirely in the Enron employees and Executives. The scandal could have been stopped by the FBI and CIA who had information about Enron but withheld that information. Additionally, both the FERC (Federal Energy Regulation Commission) and President George W. Bush had the power to bring down the scandal but refused to be involved in the California electricity crisis. George W. Bush’s excuse was that his job as president did not entail being involved in statewide matters such as the California crisis when, in fact, it did. Perhaps he didn’t want to make enemies with the biggest contributor of his campaign. So, even though the fault lies greatly in the greed of Enron employees and Executives, poor regulation for the national economy did its fair share of damage.
Michael Appelgate
F block
Were the business practices of Enron and it’s World Com subsidies mainly a result of poor regulation in the national economy OR an intentional case of “white collar” deceit and greed?
ReplyDeleteEnron wasn't a good-will corporation employing people who wanted to better the world. Enron was a business. And,as with most businesses, money was the deciding factor for everything its executives did. The path to getting that money was undoubetly scuplted with greed and deceit as those encouraged employers to squeeze through loopholes and bend laws altogether.
Laws are meant to be broken, no? I don't think they are. However, money is supple motivation for business to manipulate laws. It's human nature to act greedy wehn it comes to wealth or power. Furthermore, I belive the executives of Enron responded very well to the threatening debt because of their manipulation of laws. They put up smoking mirrors, hiring fabricated private investors to give teh illusion of expansion and wealth. They applied mark to market econonics, hiding the impending debt. They chose to pretend everything was fine. That was a good way to react. Panic would have wrecked Enron's stocks and stunted even the vaguest hope for recovery. Hesitance creates a bear market, where people sell out of fear and feed a cycle of uncertainty.
Their methods did not pay off... clearly. But how do we know those methods didn't work because of the investigations into the company and the public spectacle those investigations created?
Aleksandra Makowska, C Block
Enron’s case was very scandalous and it impacted a lot of employees. Many lost their jobs just because of a few traitors in the business. Whether the economy is good or bad, businesses close down and re-open, but there usually are no traitors, but the corruption of Enron is due to a different reason. I believe the reason why Enron collapsed is not because of poor regulation in the national economy, but because of the traitors that were residing in the core of the company. If the collapse of Enron were due to the poor regulation in the national economy, file wouldn’t have been shredded and suspicious activity wouldn’t have been reported because of phony book keeping records. Money can be made legally through a business, but not illegally through a business. Eventually, someone is going to find out and put a stop to it, so the traitors in the company had made a good plan, but they knew they wouldn’t last forever. Once again this comes back to the fact that Enron collapsed because of traitors who could not take care of the company. The business practices were due to intentional greed because the traitors knew they had a well thought out plan and they knew it would work. Still, they went ahead and put their plan into action knowing the fact that they will be hurting many people. Some of the employees quit because they knew Enron was going to collapse soon due to the suspicious activities. The practices and the collapse of Enron was due to intentional greed.
ReplyDeleteAccouting scams,covering up losses,putting issue to the side,phony book keeping& sherrding of documents yes,talking about Enron which is ascandalous and it impacted a lot of employees of job loss,some are dead & world largest accouting companys went out of buisness.one of the things that came out of Eron was a new law,Sarbanes-Oxley this is a law the requires CEO'S to sertify that there companys books and records are accuate. greed, although it also symbolized minor failure of corporation governance.When the Enron corporation crashed and their scandals were exposed, it became clear that their actions were solely for the purpose of receiving much fortune and not serving the public. The collapse wiped out over 2 billion dollars estimated pension for it"s workers retirement plan, creating millions of outcry all over the nation. Enron deceived the market by speculating much higher credit and finance than they really had, promoting themselves and gaining much public interest. Two executive members of the Enron corporation were secretly stealing millions of dollars from the company and storing them in personal accounts, the same two members allegedly performed in insider trading. Due to Enron's increasing credit and stock, investors were constantly persuaded to invest in the company, which worked out well. As time passed and Enron's fiscal health began to fail it was obivous that Eron was not the darling of wall street that everyone thought.
ReplyDeleteTremika Kirk
C-block
11-16-09
To answer the question as to whether the practices of Enron were caused by lack of the national economy’s supervision, or the company’s gluttony and desire material wealth, the answer is both. The powering company, Enron knew the methods it was taking when it decided to skyrocket its energy prices and steal money from countless consumers. However, it is also the national economy’s responsibility to view the statuses of the incomings and spending of companies in the country. With such incredible earnings and soaring profits from Enron raising money from its energy, the national economy should have suspected something was going on with such a sudden increase in Enron’s stock. Enron formulated a system that would allow its consumers to pay more prices as they deceived many into thinking energy was tremendously scarce. The company also used international banking systems to hide its some of its income so the United States would not find out just how much money the company was actually earning. From the improper accounting practices to ideas that included phony bookkeeping, Enron’s desire for money went far as to scamming its customers to the point where some couldn’t afford it. Taking every penny from individuals whose incomes could not keep up with the values of the company made Enron’s employees some of the wealthiest in the nation. When it comes down to the basics, both the government and the incorporation of Enron are responsible for the outcomes that left many without pensions, jobs, and source of income.
ReplyDeleteRacquel Wood
The main reason of the Enron scandal was that the government did not take any action towards the ending of the wrong doing of the company and more to the fact the companies leaders. The leaders would stop at nothing to become more rich and powerful. The leaders knew what they were doing wrong and the decided to kept on doing the illegal stealing of money and increased their profits sky-high. Enron made their prices very high and then would caused rolling blackouts so that people would have to use their energy, then the consumers would have to pay. more, which then would increase their profits very high. Enron would uses international banking systems to hide the amount of money made in their profits from the United States government. This made the United States government not realize that their prices were high because they could not check Enron's bank account. Another way that they hindered their profits is by hiring Accounting firms that would shred the papers that had the money they took from workers pension. Enron took it to the next level by making their prices ridiculously high so that their customers could not afford it. Then they would fire fifteen percent of their workers so that they would have enough money to pay their workers. When they were finally caught the big leaders were arrested for fraud and taking money from their workers. So many workers lost their jobs and their pensions. Also they took so much money from their customers. The Enron schedule is somewhat compareble to the Madoff scandal of the present day. So to answer the question the Enron scandal is just a case of "White Collar" of decit and greed.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Weiss
F-Block
11/17/09
The enron scandal was said to be a " white collar" greed There has been more evidence of them being proven guilty then law corruption. Enron had converted 30 million and plus stocks. There had been improper accounting records, and no excuses to go along with it. Phoney book keepings has held place which has a lose of $3.8 billion.With money like that and soaring profits from Enron raising money from its energy, people should have suspected something was wrong with such a sudden increase in Enron’s stock. Enron formulated a system that would allow its consumers to pay more prices as they deceived many into thinking energy was tremendously scarce.Two executive members of the Enron corporation were secretly stealing millions of dollars from the company and storing them in personal accounts, the same two members allegedly performed in insider trading. Due to Enron's increasing credit and stock, investors were constantly persuaded to invest in the company, which worked out well. i really dont understand how they were able to get this far but enventualy everything came crashing down causing a lot of people to lose their jobs and many left without pensions or a source of income
ReplyDeletevictoria exume block c
The whole act of the Enron scandal was unfair and absolutely absurd. The Enron scandal decieved many people and corrupted the government heavily. Everything about the scandal was negative and foul. The companys method of accounting was improper. The company had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through the prestigations of phony book keeping. The Enron executives persuaded the employers to come up with new ideas for Enron to increase profits. This is where the whole Market to Market trading occured. Making investments with projected profits. 20,000 employees lost their jobs. They would cook the books and keep false records. The company used international banking systems to hide the income so they wuldent reveal to the US on how much money they were really making. Greed really was the biggest factor of the scandal. All the executives wanted was money money money so they did it in illegal ways not caring how it affected others. The Enron executives drained pensions in order to maintain their personal savings and money in check. Enron also black mailed the workers. Enron was a white collar and corporate crime, along with fraud. They intentionally messed around with accounting documents until they were caught. Eventually The Enron scandal collapsed and was going down hill. All the employees of Enron lost everything. All the participants of the scandal sufered and became bankrupted.
ReplyDeleteAshley Suechee
Block: F
Enron and World COM's business practices were that of intentional white collar deceit and greed. Enron was controlled by greedy people who wanted money. Enron executives sold over 30 million stocks in the company, while 20,000 of its employees lost their jobs. Enron stole $2 billion in pension from people's life savings. Enron affected California with rolling black outs to get more money from the people who paid their electric bills. Enron purchased PGE controlling the west coast power grid. Even though California was struggling, FERC refused to get involved in California's energy crisis. Corporate executives were not trustworthy and Enron employees testified against the company in court. Enron created artificial demands for electricity to get more money. Overall, I think Enron and the broadband subsidy World COM were both controlling and wanted more money.
ReplyDeleteBethany Greenman
F-Block
When Enron was being formed as a business, there is no doubts that its goals of getting money was because of greed. Money was the had all the power in the Enron business. The functions of Enron’s business were simply wrong, as they pushed themselves through small loopholes and twisted laws to cover up for themselves. The cause of this scandal was because that government was not taking action when they saw something was wrong with the business practice of Enron. The greed of the business leaders was their motivation to keep pushing through these loopholes, knowing that they were wrong. But did they care? Not in the least bit! Enron used a Market-to-Market system of trading which allowed them to profit tons of money. This system allowed Enron to gamble with the money of other companies. They estimated the amount of money they would make in years to come based on previous years and this allowed them to maximize their profits.Although it might be the norm to become greedy when it comes to wealth, there is a limit to just wanting money opposed to breaking laws and effecting lives of others to get that money and make yourself superior to others. This is exactly what Enron did. However, because Enron was so successful in manipulating laws, it became easy for them to respond to the debt. It was well thought out on Enron’s behalf because they knew exactly how to respond.
ReplyDeleteRosa Carucci
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The Enron scandal was intentional corruption due to white collar deceit and greed. When it comes to money people are money hungry and will do anything to get rich quick, and looking at the Enron scandal this stands true. The Enron executives sought out any loophole to make as much money as possible. Over the course of existence of the Enron company about 20,000 people had lost their jobs and over two billion dollars in pension and retirement funds had disappeared. The executives of Enron were earning bonuses that totaled over $55 billion dollars, similar to the recent AIG scandal. the fall of Enron was mainly due to the deceit and greed of these executives. By shredding the financila records, Enron was keeping phony and illegitimate records. Enron had been stealing money from the state of Califonia. The Enron stock was never going down and the company had sold about $30 million in stock shares.
ReplyDeleteEnron stole money from its employees, investors, and wasted it way, thanks to the deregulation that the U.S. government allowed. However, it seems the capitalism is responsible for this fraud because in this economic system money is the incentive for almost every action.
ReplyDeleteFrom the start, the want to make millions drove Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling, and the other men in charge of Enron to think of the innovative idea of selling energy as a stock and this want led to the company’s initial success.
Even the U.S. government was not reluctant to deregulate for the success of Enron and ultimately for the nations economy.
Later, the want for even more money drove the Enron leaders to branch out, expand, and create subsidies that unfortunately failed.
Greed drove Enron executives to falsify their financial information and continue making millions, regardless the fate of the company. Greed motivated the Arthur Anderson to participate in the shredding of evidence for Enron, so investors would continue feeding the failing company. As one of the traders claimed he was willing to step over anyone to make money. This view was clearly shared by the rest of Enron’s executives.
It is true that this scandal would not have occurred if the government was perhaps less deregulatory and if the big boys at Enron had morals. Also if the Bush administration and Congress approached Enron with ethics, the fraud could have been discovered earlier and perhaps the thousands of employees who lost pensions and jobs wouldn’t have. However, human nature is flawed; thus, people cheat each other and are willing to take any action that earns them some money, power, or fame.
Question: Do you expect similar economic scandals to occur in the future?