The Next Enron Scandal

[babsbunny]

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/11/the_next_enron_scandal.php

Isaiah J. Poole is executive editor of TomPaine.com. Rick Perlstein is senior fellow at the Institute for America's Future.

The Enron scandal is rearing its ugly head again, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has to decide with whom it will stand: Will it be with small investors who depend on the honest advice of financial advisors or with bankers who, thanks to a recent federal court decision, have a license to facilitate fraud?

That stunning Fifth Circuit ruling is before the Supreme Court, which has to decide whether it will review the case. How the SEC weighs in could influence the justices, who will have their own choice to make between a conservative ideology that brooks virtually no boundaries for rampant corporate greed and the values of basic farness, honesty and justice.

At issue are the sham transactions that kept billions of dollars of Enron debt off the books and, for a while, artificially propped up the stock price. They were engineered by banks, but by a 2 to 1 vote the appeals panel said that investors could not sue the banks for being the enablers in the Enron fraud.

[Selatius]

1. The Fifth Circuit is one of the most corporatized branches in the district system

They are not a good venue to be in if one can help it, but unfortunately, Texas falls under the jurisdiction of the 5th. Mississippi and Louisiana also fall under the jurisdiction of the 5th.

[chieftain]

2. Don't expect any help from this Court on this type of case.

Although the emphasis of the reporting about W's appointments has focused on social issues like abortion, this group of RWers will bring back memories of the economic royalists who thwarted FDR during the early stages of his administrations. Corporations will be the "persons" with unrestrained" rights, women will be persons who need to be protected from their own destructive impulses.
The reach of the wrecking crew that is the Bush Regime will last long after the fool leaves DC and its most enduring effects will come from his toadies on the Court.

[Greyhound]

3. Trying to stop this from sinking into obscurity.

:kick: