Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

At the time of writing this entry, I have only blogged two DVDs, and I recommend this third one as much as the previous documentaries.

Earlier this week, I didn't feel like watching any more Alfred Hitchcock, although I enjoy his work, I felt like watching something to do with those nasty big corporations, that run the world. You know, like Enron.



As you can see by the image above, I chose, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room. If you have not seen it, are interested in this type of stuff, you may want to give it a look.

Quoted from description...

Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind a multidimensional study of one of the biggest business scandals in American history. The chronicle takes a look at one of the greatest corporate disasters in history in which top executives from the 7th largest company in this country walked away with over one billion dollars leaving investors and employees with nothing. The film features insider accounts and rare corporate audio and video tapes that reveal colossal personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy. The human drama that unfolds within Enron's walls resembles a Greek tragedy and produces a domino effect that could shape the face of our economy...

Listen to phone calls of stock traders cheer on California fires, as people die, so they can increase profits. You won't believe your ears. See, Enron controlled the energy markets, and by bringing down California power, during "Black Outs," the value of energy stocks would increase, this allowed them to fluctuate and manipulate their stocks and ultimately the cost being charged to the public. Americans were ripped off for millions, you must see this.

To quote Jeff Shannon, from Amazon:

The corrupt and closely-guarded mismanagement by Enron executives (including Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, later placed on criminal trial) is revealed through such heinous concepts as "Hypothetical Future Value" (a way of reaping fortunes based on false profit projections) and the use of offshore "shell" companies to hide the massive losses that eventually toppled the company (along with the venerable Arthur Anderson accounting firm) and left 20,000 employees jobless. As a maddening portrait of hubris and white-collar crime, Enron transcends political and corporate boundaries by showing how smart and powerful men grew blinded by greed and brought ruin upon themselves, along with thousands of otherwise innocent victims. For better and worse, it's a perfect double-feature with eye-opening 2004 documentary The Corporation.

While many documentaries like to portray corporations, as big bad things, America will never be without them. It is best to educate yourself on them, and be aware of what is going on in the modern business world.

AIG Blog Relations

Something that has many Americans angry tonight, is the $440,000 retreat I brought up recently.

Well, today I got a blog comment from "AIG Blog Relations" and I felt I should make a quick post and direct your eyes that way and see their response to my entry. I am guessing AIG Blog Relations is someone being paid to, or a bot being directed to, post replies on blog entries regarding the AIG bailout.

I know a lot of people are angry about this, and rightfully so.

When people can barely fill up their car to go to work because of the gas prices right now, and they hear about people ordering $1,200 worth of food in a night, or spending $200,000 on rooms at an expensive California spa retreat. Yeah, ordinary folk tend to get angry.

And not only are average Americans digusted, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has called for people at American International Group Inc. to be fired over this.

"If AIG was throwing money around for tee times and hot stone massages while begging for Federal Reserve dollars, it's a scandal and an outrage and heads will roll," Baucus said. "I want to know who we can fire and how we can get this misspent money back and I want both of those things to happen pronto."

He said he is considering calling for a special investigation by the Federal Reserve Inspector General.

Even President Bush is mad LOL

Anyway, feel like saying something about this? Make an anonymous comment! join the discussion here

McCain Helping eBay Stocks In Speeches

Am I the only one who notices John McCain plugging eBay into his speeches?

Do you think this is a coincidence that one of his advisers is in fact Meg Whitman, who has made millions of dollars off eBay stocks?

Do you think McCain has eBay stocks in his investment portfolio?

I am surprised to see I am one of the only people bringing this up in blogs today. I noticed McCain consistently plugging how well eBay is doing right now in his speeches, how so many Americans make a living from auctions, and so on. However, that type of promotion comes on the heels of a lay off of 1,000 eBay employees.

I have mentioned this in my comments about the debates last night:

I also thought it was hilarious that McCain mentioned eBay and how many people are doing business on the site, but he left out the fact that eBay has just laid off 1,000 employees... this really shows how out of touch he is with the rest of us. Why? One of his advisers is ex eBay executive Meg Whitman. The people at the top are doing great, but the people who just lost their job aren't doing so well, but McCain will try and make it look like eBay is doing great and everyone is happy. Not the 1,000 who just got laid off.

Should politicians use heavily promoted events such as Presidential Debates to promote companies they are investing in? If these people own stocks in the companies they are promoting in their public speeches, this is like free advertisement.

Meg Whitman has made a lot of money with eBay stocks, and one has to wonder, how much will McCain make?

AuctionBytes says..

eBay CEO Meg Whitman exercised options on shares of eBay stock in June and twice during the month of August, and sold the stock for a total of $64.9 million for a net gain of $45.7 million for the year. The transactions were conducted under a prearranged trading plan that allows Whitman to sell up to 6,400,000 shares between June 2007 and February 2008.

McCain has touted Meg and her economic prowess as why she is his adviser, however, this comes at a time when eBay is laying off 10% of its workers!

According to Reuters & The Huffington Post...

McCain touts the economic prowess of, and suggests as a future Treasury Secretary Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay and someone who he has turned to for economic advice in the past. Normally, this is a solid point for McCain to press, highlighting entrepreneurship and the growth of female business leaders. The problem: eBay just announced that it was firing 10 percent of its work force.

EBay announced on Monday that it would cut 10 percent of its global workforce, representing the most significant layoffs in its history.

This is what McCain had to say about Meg Whitman and eBay during his speech... just like an advertisement.

I like Meg Whitman [former CEO of eBay and current McCain campaign adviser], she knows what it's like to be out there in the marketplace. She knows how to create jobs. Meg Whitman was CEO of a company that started with 12 people and is now 1.3 million people in America make their living off eBay. Maybe somebody here has done a little business with them.

At a time when the stock market is falling and Wall Street is in trouble, I highly doubt he is just dropping names like eBay in his speeches for free. Politicians never promote companies or corporations for free.

My grandpa told me long ago, "follow the money." I would place a wager that if you follow the money on this, you'd find out exactly why McCain talks so much about eBay in his speeches.

Bailout Execs $440,000 Spa Retreat

So here's what AIG execs are doing with those billions of tax-payer bailout dollars...

From MSNBC...

Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group Inc., the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California resort, lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown said Tuesday.

The tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees at the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy.

The retreat didn't include anyone from the financial products division that nearly drove AIG under, but lawmakers were still enraged over thousands of dollars spent on catered banquets, golf outings and visits to the resort's spa and salon for executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary.

"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., scolded the company during a lengthy opening statement. "Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."

Aren't you in a hurry to help bailout more of these failing banks now?

Keating Economics & John McCain

Find out just how involved McCain was in the Keating Five scandal in this video. It's pretty simple, he would help push for deregulation and immunity from prosecution for the crook behind the entire ordeal.

McCain's push for deregulation is what helped cause the Keating scandal, and further paved the way for the mess we see on Wall Street today in the form of $700 Billion Bailout.

From the Chicago Tribune:

"During the savings and loan crisis of the late '80s and early '90s, McCain's political favors and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan," Plouffe writes to supporters. "More than 23,000 investors lost their savings. Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion."

"In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee," Plouffe writes. "The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts."

McCain should have known the Keating Five scandal would resurface, and as an American citizen, it is startling how similar these events are. Notice McCain's answer, "more deregulation!

That very deregulation is why we are in the mess we are now. Thanks to John McCain.

Republicans Foreclosing Voter Rights

With over 700 families a day losing their home in California, and the current financial crisis facing America is causing more people to lose their homes, I wonder if the Republicans will use this to their advantage during the presidential election of 2008? Or are they already planning to?

According to the NY Times,...

The foreclosure crisis could do considerable damage to the nation’s voting system. More than a million people have lost their homes in the past two years. And because voter registration is based on people’s residences, they could face politically motivated challenges at the polls.

The problem may be especially acute in the presidential battleground states. In Ohio, more than 5 percent of home mortgages are seriously delinquent or in the foreclosure process, and there were more than 67,000 foreclosure actions in the first half of 2008. Michigan and Florida have also been hard hit.

There are a large number of advocacy groups and other programs that work to ensure that minorities, the disabled and students are able to cast ballots. Because the foreclosure crisis is so recent, not much work has been done to ensure that people who lose their homes do not also lose their chance to vote.

Many of the hardest-hit neighborhoods are low- income and minority areas, which tend to vote Democratic. That means officials have to be extra vigilant to ensure that Republicans do not use foreclosure lists to challenge voters. There was a dust-up recently in Michigan, after a progressive Web site quoted the Republican chairman of Macomb County as saying that his party planned to do just that. He and the party insist there are no such plans, but the Barack Obama campaign has filed suit to block foreclosure-based challenges.

Whatever happens in Macomb County, where nearly one in every 100 households is in foreclosure, it is likely that in at least some parts of the country there will be challenges to voters who have lost their homes. There is also a real danger that voters who are in foreclosure will be misled or intimidated into not casting ballots.

What can be done to try and stop this from happening?

It is important that state and local elections officials do everything they can to help people caught up in foreclosure to cast ballots. They should make clear that in many circumstances, people in foreclosure still have the right to vote where they have been living. The rules vary by state. They should also widely advertise how people who leave their homes can change their registration, to vote from their new addresses.

Election officials should also ensure that there are enough poll workers to handle the disputes and confusion that could arise — and that they are properly instructed in the law.

Wonder Where All This Money Comes From?

The Los Angeles Times has said, "The House today approved a $700-billion financial rescue plan -- sweetened by $110 billion in tax cuts -- on a 263-171 vote four days after rejecting it in a move that stunned both Wall Street and Washington."

According to the Associated Press, "With the economy on the brink and elections looming, Congress approved an unprecedented $700 billion government bailout of the battered financial industry on Friday and sent it to President Bush who quickly signed it."

Today I read on the Wall Street Journal, "President George W. Bush signed the biggest government intervention in the financial markets since the Great Depression after U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers wary of growing signs of the nation's economic distress voted Friday in favor of a $700 billion Wall Street rescue package."



Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who wonders these things? Where does all this money come from?

It must fall from the sky.

McCain's Blame Game

We all know politics is sometimes the art of saying one thing and doing another, but nowhere is that fact more prevalent than in John McCain's call for no finger pointing during the current financial crisis, while pointing the finger at Barack Obama and blaming him for it.

McCain's latest ad even claims Democrats and Senator Barack Obama are to blame for blocking reforms that would have stopped the financial crisis from happening! But he wants the world to believe he is not casting blame on anyone. He has formally denied any blame game, however interviews illustrate this falsehood blatantly. Using his own words against him, reporter after reporter has shown he uses blame in many of his ads and speeches, and in the same paragraph will point the finger and cast blame on anyone except the actual people who helped cause the financial crisis, the banks, the people who fought for less regulation of financial institutions and policies.



McCain has proven himself to be quite the flip flopper during this campaign. Often saying one thing and doing another, or in this case, hypocrisy of placing blame on your opponent for doing exactly what you are in fact doing. The McCain Blame Game started long ago, and he uses it to great effect in the media, however reporters are pointing out his lies as the election continues.

McCain has also tried to use his "campaign suspension" to his advantage, when many in government feel his efforts actually slowed down and hindered the process. Again, in the same breath trying to paint himself as someone who was assisting the bailout effort, while in fact hindering it and aiming to cast blame on Barack Obama.

“He certainly did nothing for the first few days," McCain added. "I suspended my campaign, took our ads down, came back to Washington, met with the House folks and got on the phone, and also had face-to-face meetings.”

Let's not forget he cancelled his David Letterman interview to "catch a plane to Washington," but was in fact just a few blocks away having makeup put on to do another interview, and was actually not on his way to the nation's capitol.

McCain began introducing partisanship into the process of government as soon as he "suspended his campaign." That effort alone hindered and slowed down the actual work being done on negotiating the bill. "More harm than good" comes to mind. He sought to dominate news coverage, and in the end it backfired on him and made Barack Obama look good for wanting to continue the first Presidential Debate rather than avoid it.

One thing he cannot deny is Obama's recent surge in popularity and approval ratings in the polls. And McCain's latest quote buzzing around the internet news sites and blogs may be his best.

When asked why Obama is doing good in the latest polls McCain answered: "Because life isn’t fair.”

Senate Bailout Vote

How did the Senators that represent your state vote?

Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Alexander (R-TN), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Yea
Boxer (D-CA), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Nay
Burr (R-NC), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Cantwell (D-WA), Nay
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Chambliss (R-GA), Yea
Clinton (D-NY), Yea
Coburn (R-OK), Yea
Cochran (R-MS), Nay
Coleman (R-MN), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Corker (R-TN), Yea
Cornyn (R-TX), Yea
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Dodd (D-CT), Yea
Dole (R-NC), Nay
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Ensign (R-NV), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Nay
Kennedy (D-MA), Not Voting
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Nay
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Martinez (R-FL), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Yea
McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Nay
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Obama (D-IL), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Sanders (I-VT), Nay
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Sununu (R-NH), Yea
Tester (D-MT), Nay
Thune (R-SD), Yea
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Warner (R-VA), Yea
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
Wicker (R-MS), Nay
Wyden (D-OR), Nay

This is how the Senate voted Wednesday on the financial bailout bill. (S. Amdt. 5685 to H.R. 1424)

Maxed Out

Despite being an avid horror movie fan, I have become addicted to documentaries lately, especially social and political ones.

So considering the latest financial crisis looming, I decided to finally check out the DVD Maxed Out.

Maxed Out takes viewers on a journey deep inside the American style of debt where things seem fine as long as the minimum monthly payment arrives on time. Shocking and incisive Maxed Out paints a picture of a national nightmare which is all too real for most of us.Runtime: 87 mins

While I could gather what it was about from the title and brief description alone, it did provide a peek into some aspects of American debt that I was not aware of. Such as the average American household has at least $9,000 in credit card debt. As well as a brief hint into credit or debt related suicides in the population.

I already knew a few things this DVD seeks to inform the viewer of. How could most of us not be aware that most Americans are behind on bills and credit and debt are both sky high at this time in our nation's history? That most people will never pay off their credit cards before they die, and the majority of citizens have credit card debt, hence the title Maxed Out.



Maxed Out does include some entertaining clips of the major credit card company lobbyists and spokesman before congress and you can clearly see the influence they do have. You are briefly informed about Bush and the bankruptcy reform, but I felt it could have went a little more into real estate debt. However, I do understand this documentary was focused on credit card debt as opposed to the economic crisis facing America today.

I recommend this DVD to anyone interested in financial issues related to society, and or debt in general.