Should the Enron executives be given amnesty?
As a California taxpayer who watched my state bilked out of $8 billion dollars, no. In fact, since new testimony has come to light where former Enron traders stated that they were encouraged by Jeff Skilling to play the market by buying electricity from California, sell it to Arizona, buy it back from Arizona and sell it back to California for 10x the going rate, Skilling should be charged in California, along with all the traders that played the game. In fact, I wish Jerry Brown would file a huge lawsuit against ALL the companies that participated in this practice and have the state seize their properties and hold them until the $8 billion is refunded, even if it means putting a couple of them out of business and people on the street.
The accounting fraud and deception that ENRON executives used is nothing compared the accounting fraud and deception the government gets away with every day. The US government has two sets of books, the Office of Budget Management, (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office, (CBO) with two different sets of numbers depending on what the politicians want to say. Then there are off budget items they do not get reported anywhere. The government calls a less then expected increase in funding a cut. Which is like saying I bought a new tv on sale and saved money. No you did not save, you just spent less.
