Conspiracy of Fools

The NY Times ran a lengthy excerpt from Eichenwald's book in yesterday's paper. Gripping reading to say the least. But here's a passage that really sent shivers:

"[Enron lead spokesman Mark] Palmer looked at [Enron Pres. at the time Greg] Whalley and said nothing. Whalley noticed Palmer's eyes were watering. Palmer's mouth filled with saliva as a wave of nausea washed over him. He was about to vomit, right in front of Whalley.

He turned, dashing into the men's room. He ran to the farthest sink. His stomach heaved, and he spit out the saliva flooding his mouth. The nausea passed, and he threw some water on his face. Whalley pushed into the bathroom and put an arm around Palmer's shoulder.

'Hey, come on,' Whalley said. 'Come sit down.'

He took Palmer into a room and sat him at a table. Palmer wiped his face. 'Greg!' he snapped. 'I want out!'

Whalley looked at Palmer with surprise. 'You want out why? We're going to be O.K. We'll get through this.'

Palmer shook his head. 'No, we won't Greg! The [Wall Street] Journal knows a lot more about what's going on around here than I know, a lot more than Ken [Lay] and the rest of you.'

Well, there was a problem, Whalley said. Most of Enron's executives had lawyered up - they were now all worrying about their personal liability. There weren't going to be a lot of straight answers coming out of anyone.

He pointed at Palmer. 'But we're not giving anybody any outs here,' he said. 'Nobody's getting a severance package. Nobody.'

Palmer closed his eyes. He couldn't afford to walk away without a severance package. 'All right,' he said. 'Let's go back to the conference room.'

I have a cousin, 59 years old who after 26 years with N.Nat'l Gas then Enron was approaching his retirement when his plans changed. He lost everything to the merciless cretans who ran away with the bank. As Steve continues to eek out a living and survival pushes retirement off to the hazy future, I think that no punishment for these thieves is too harsh.