Enron Was Ahead of Its Time

Having fun yet? So many story lines and so many angles. What a mess this has all become. The major average "SOARED" this week to finish up where they stared on Monday. I wonder why that is not the headline today? I am going to hit a few key points I am thinking about, and then I will try and amuse/entertain as is the Friday Night usual.

US Congress Eager to Sign Bill with No Details
In case there was any doubt, we have perhaps the largest collection of hapless bums running the country. There was a story on Yahoo Finance earlier that quoted a Senator with the following line:

"We will pass the Treasury plan (RTC plan) as soon as we can, and I would like to see some details."

I have news for you chump, the time to see details is before you pass the biggest bailout plan since the Marshal Plan after WWII, not after. Isn't one of the major problems right now that many "homeowners" signed mortgages without seeing the details before they signed? Creepy.

Well here at Economic Disconnect I was able to obtain the complete bill, and I have taken out some details that the US congress may like to know about before they sign on the dotted line. Here are some key attachments:

1. Ben Bernanke will from now on be referred to as "Great Exalted One" during all congress briefings and interviews as well as in any written media.
2. Hank Paulson will be called "Chrome Domed Love Machine" from this point forward.
3. Treasury and Federal Reserve employees have been granted the right of "Primae Noctis" with regards to any US virgins, should any still exist.
4. Keys to Fort Knox will be provided to Paulson and Bernanke to ward off future "Systemic Risk".

I think the US Congress should really read this thing through before they sign off on it as these attachments seem a bit much to me.

Bill Gross is a Dirty Rotten Criminal
The more Bill Gross of Pimco opens his mouth the more I want him to take me up on my steel cage match challenge. The balls on this charlatan can only be termed massive. After positioning himself to make sure the government has to bailout everything this side of the Milky Way, this clown now fully expects to be managing the FED's holdings! Too rich! Check it out:
Reuters
Pimco's Gross looks to manage government's rescued assetsFriday September 19, 2:51 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bill Gross, chief investment officer of Pimco, said he is interested in managing a pool of assets acquired by the government through recent financial rescue plans.
"We have interest in managing this giant pool of assets, and we expect to be called," Gross said on CNBC television in response to a question on whether Pimco had been consulted by the government about doing so.

With the way the powers have danced to Mr. Gross Outs tunes so far I have every belief Bill will get his wish. Please Bill, give me a call on that match. Soon.

Enron Was Ahead of Its Time
You have to feel bad for those poor souls which ran Enron. They were years ahead of their time, they were just unappreciated as clever geniuses. If Ken Lay and crew had only waited a few more years, history would regard them as savvy players that used the whole "systemic risk" pocket aces to great effect.

Those poor Enron guys. While they were attacked for accounting fraud, Fannie Mae had their purchase caps lifted and was able to operate for 2 years without a single shred of quarterly reports. I mean, falsifying earnings reports is bad, but now that is the new good! Too late for Enron.

Enron used wild and complicated derivatives bets to lever up their small initial working capital into a mammoth, if hollow, money base. At the time this was panned as dangerous but today it is known as the investment bank business model. Again, too late for Enron.

Enron hid losses and wildly exaggerated their asset values using internal parameters that had no basis in the real world. Now this is currently known as "Level Three Asset Accounting" and "Mark to Model" pricing. Again, just missed by a sliver of geological time! Poor fools.

Enron shopped around for a buyer to help them survive, but after looking at their books there were no takers. Once again, we see that the Enron model was not wrong, just early. Today we have the FED and Treasury forcing mergers and buyouts for insolvent institutions, and when that fails they just bail them out themselves.

I think it is clear that the so called scandal that was Enron was something else entirely. I think Enron was punished and attacked so harshly because they exposed the clever plan the banks had for screwing the US taxpayer into paying for their never ending party. Enron was early once again, and paid the price. Their model was then copied and amplified to arrive at the point in time we are now at. I am not writing this to be funny. There is no material difference between Enron's behavior and that of today's players. Sick? Yes. Sad? That too. Basically what we deserve for being the losers that vote in fools? You bet your ass.

Friday Night Entertainment

Book Passages
I think i will include the writer and book title so that if the passage I use is interesting to you, you can take a look at the book.

"So I think I can tell you this: I can just about guarantee you, I believe I can guarantee you, that if you'll take this on faith and commit yourself for two years, assuming you get through some further testing, you will thank me. You'll say I was right. You'll tell me that the very thought that you might have missed out on this gives you the chills. How many human beings have ever lived, Si? Five or six billion, maybe? Well, if you should test out, you'll become one of maybe a dozen out of all those billions, maybe the only one, who just might have the greatest adventure any human being has ever had."

from the novel "Time and Again" by Jack Finney

Rock Blogging
We are in desperate need of some good tunes to soothe the soul after this week.

I am cautiously optimistic about the new Metallica album. Take a listen to "The Day That Never Comes" and you will go back in time to the years when Metallica albums like "Ride the Lightning". I like this song:


I must admit, I can envision a charge on the Fed and Treasury by an army with the intent of setting things straight. Useful visual imagery is provided by Darth Vader's march on the Jedi temple:


Frustrated? Angry? Rock out to Limp Bizkit's temper loss song "Break Stuff". Warning: rough language and imagery. Give me something to BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!:


Have a good night.