Word: enronization
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...market needs enough competitive players to make it work. So while Brussels might cheer consolidation in some sectors - cross-border banking, for example - in others, like utilities, it's more of a headache. Remember the deregulated U.S. market of the late '90s, when a handful of big utilities, Enron among them, were able to dominate, sending prices skyward? Kroes admitted last month that high industry concentration and feeble cross-border competition added up to "a rather gloomy picture." Consumer groups put that view more sharply. The specter of further consolidation among Europe's utilities "can only reinforce our worries regarding...
This week will see the beginning of the trial of former Enron boss Ken Lay, and, in all likelihood, the confirmation of Samuel Alito to be the newest associate justice of the Supreme Court. On Sunday, Americans will tune in to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks go head to head at the Super Bowl in Detroit-and Mick Jagger strut at the half-time show. But even the Rolling Stones won't be able to upstage the biggest news event of the week, when President Bush delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday...
...some extent, this public hostility is well deserved. The bankruptcies of Enron in the U.S. and Parmalat in Italy?and last week, the gyrations of Japan's stock market following news of alleged financial wrongdoing by Internet company Livedoor?have focused attention on corporate misdeeds on three continents. Revelations about how the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff allegedly bought influence in the U.S. Congress have made a mockery of claims for clean government. The U.N. is struggling to recover from its own high-level corruption scandal relating to the oil-for-food program in prewar Iraq. And, at a time when...
...SMARTER RISK TAKING Its culture embraced risk--including others'. Enron's Energy Services unit was a pioneer in building a business based on getting other companies to pay to shed risk. It helped concerns like Starwood Hotels handle complex financial instruments that protected them from swings in energy prices. Clients got predictable prices; Enron took on the risk--and potentially huge rewards. One tool Enron had to work with: groundbreaking in-house software for risk management...
...ARMY OF IDEAS With 16 of Enron's execs pleading guilty to various crimes since 2002, it's easy to forget that the company had thousands of employees who moved on without rap sheets and, in many cases, with their novel thinking. Lynda Clemmons, who at Enron pioneered weather derivatives (financial products used to hedge climate-related risk like energy consumption) did the same for XL Weather & Energy. Top Enron trader John Arnold now runs an energy hedge fund, Centaurus, and a group of those pioneering risk specialists started Mobius Risk Group. Enron's top talent might have...