Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Ken Lay, RIP

Word came this morning that Ken Lay, the founder of Enron who was about to go to prison for his role in the widespread financial malfeasance that happened under his watch, died of a massive heart attack at his vacation home in Colorado.

After everything that's happened with the Enron scandal since it first broke five years ago, Lay's death seems like a very odd end note. While there were many people who wanted Lay to go to prison, it was never clear to me how sending Lay to a cushy federal pen really would have accomplished anything. The Enron scandal was a bit of a blank screen and most of the people who have opined on the matter have used the scandal as a cudgel by which to beat those they dislike, especially the current resident of the White House. Since most of the crimes took place during the Clinton era, it never made much sense to link Enron to Bush, even though Bush was the governor of Texas. We tend to believe that our governments have more power over our lives than they often do, of course, and there are those who believe that government needs even more power. These people, who have a rather dim view of human nature, are often called idealists.

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