The Enron Files

In dubious honor of the principles in the current legal proceedings against Enron.

The contents of certain email communications within Enron during the time of the fleecing of the American public have been made public via subpeona. I have downloaded the data and created a database to peruse and try to get a feel for what was going on with the culture and people of Enron at the time.

Much of the blame for all of this was pinned on "Big Oil Companies from Texas". This is just not the case. Big oil companies in Texas were founded on handshake deals and a strict unwritten code of ethics that essentially blacklisted people unwilling to play by the rules. Enron's downfall began when they stopped recruiting energy industry heavywieghts and starting aggressively recruiting financial deal makers. A company once run by oil men who understood the business and acted accordingly became one run by accountants who understood wall-street, "creative accounting" (this term should be an oxymoron), and making themselves wealthy.

So I submit that the public was fleeced, not by Big Texas Oil, but by underhanded, yellow-Yankee, blue-blooded, swindling, bean-counting carpet baggers.

More fun statistics and opinion later from The Enron Files.