Miners Wanted (1 Viewer)

[danarhea]

Information miners, that is.

The complete database of all Enron emails has been obtained and put into the public domain. Several groups are now mining the data, and are striking some very interesting deposits. The latest find is that GOP/USA (The organization which hired male prostitute Jeff Gannon) was actually started by our friends at Enron. More emails are showing connections between Enron and various Republican officials, especially Tom Delay. Some people at Enron were stupid enough to qualify for their own episodes on Americas Dumbest Criminals. You will realize that as you mine the data. Some good jokes in there too. Who said Enron management didnt have a sense of humor while they were stealing the life savings of thousands of people?

You can mine the Enron database here.

Or you can join a datamining group and work with them here. This is the group which found the link between Enron and GOPUSA.

Enjoy

 

[Pacridge]

Information miners, that is.

The complete database of all Enron emails has been obtained and put into the public domain. Several groups are now mining the data, and are striking some very interesting deposits. The latest find is that GOP/USA (The organization which hired male prostitute Jeff Gannon) was actually started by our friends at Enron. More emails are showing connections between Enron and various Republican officials, especially Tom Delay. Some people at Enron were stupid enough to qualify for their own episodes on Americas Dumbest Criminals. You will realize that as you mine the data. Some good jokes in there too. Who said Enron management didnt have a sense of humor while they were stealing the life savings of thousands of people?

You can mine the Enron database here.

Or you can join a datamining group and work with them here. This is the group which found the link between Enron and GOPUSA.

Enjoy

I have a couple friends, a man and wife, who lost basically everything on this scam. 63 yrs. old looking to retire one minute and planning to work until they die the next. I really hope those most responsible are taken to a dark smelly hole and left there to rot.

 

[KCConservative]

I really hope those most responsible are taken to a dark smelly hole and left there to rot.

No, don't give them billo's address. That wouldn't be nice. :2dance:

 

[DeeJayH]

I have a couple friends, a man and wife, who lost basically everything on this scam. 63 yrs. old looking to retire one minute and planning to work until they die the next. I really hope those most responsible are taken to a dark smelly hole and left there to rot.

there is no question what Enron did was deplorable, despicable and criminal
but why was your friends entire nest egg wrapped up in Enron?
had they never heard of diversification? limiting your downside? spreading the risk around?

 

[Pacridge]

there is no question what Enron did was deplorable, despicable and criminal
but why was your friends entire nest egg wrapped up in Enron?
had they never heard of diversification? limiting your downside? spreading the risk around?

I know I don't have my money in one fund, nor would I ever. I go so far as to use separate trading firms with different holding within each. I've always done this but must admit the whole Enron thing makes me more cautious.

All that being said I know I don't have an employer who's telling me consistently and constantly how strong my company is. Or that the CEO and others are buying stock in it like crazy. According to my friend he did. Not only did they claim it was great stock they went out of their way to inflate it's value so it looked like it was making enormous returns. By the time any one caught on they froze the ability of the regular employees to sell their shares. Which left my friend with only one option- sit and read the paper every day watching his nest egg turn into a worthless nest turd.

I don't know the whole story here, I'm getting his side first hand. But he could have some facts mixed up. Most reports I've read in the press back him up.

I would be real careful about blaming the victims.

 

[DeeJayH]

I know I don't have my money in one fund, nor would I ever. I go so far as to use separate trading firms with different holding within each. I've always done this but must admit the whole Enron thing makes me more cautious.

All that being said I know I don't have an employer who's telling me consistently and constantly how strong my company is. Or that the CEO and others are buying stock in it like crazy. According to my friend he did. Not only did they claim it was great stock they went out of their way to inflate it's value so it looked like it was making enormous returns. By the time any one caught on they froze the ability of the regular employees to sell their shares. Which left my friend with only one option- sit and read the paper every day watching his nest egg turn into a worthless nest turd.

I don't know the whole story here, I'm getting his side first hand. But he could have some facts mixed up. Most reports I've read in the press back him up.

I would be real careful about blaming the victims.

all you have to do is look at the past 'widow and orphan stocks' to realize that you just dont put all your eggs in one basket no matter how sweet is smells.
and for the record, i would put 98% of the guilt on Enron Execs
and only 2% on the ignorant masses who bought into their con
I hope all involved get 25 to life and pay restitution in the Billions

 

[Pacridge]

all you have to do is look at the past 'widow and orphan stocks' to realize that you just dont put all your eggs in one basket no matter how sweet is smells.
and for the record, i would put 98% of the guilt on Enron Execs
and only 2% on the ignorant masses who bought into their con
I hope all involved get 25 to life and pay restitution in the Billions

Well I've bit my tongue more then once. The urge to ask "WTF were you thinking?" is pretty strong at times. But I think he's all too aware of how dumb this was, hind sight it turns out is 20/20.

In a sense I think you had the perfect storm of sorts. You had more and more people throwing their money into this thing, no one was getting burned and people were showing up at work and reporting these huge gains. It almost got to the point where people who didn't put huge %'s in felt like they were the stupid ones. It's was like watching people jump off a cliff and they had such good results no one stopped to think "Umm, excuse me why are we all jumping off this cliff?"

 

[BWG]

Pacridge

I know some people that worked for Enron also and you are pretty much right on. Everybody has heard and seen the stories of people getting in on the ground floor of companies like Microsoft and becoming very wealthy. So believing in the future of their company, they thought why not them, why not invest and share in the growth and success of Enron.

It almost got to the point where people who didn't put huge %'s in felt like they were the stupid ones.

Exactly. If things had worked out and your co-workers caught a piece of good fortune and you were left kicking your behind.

Now with the benefit of hindsight everyone is kicking their behind.

 

[Pacridge]

Pacridge

I know some people that worked for Enron also and you are pretty much right on. Everybody has heard and seen the stories of people getting in on the ground floor of companies like Microsoft and becoming very wealthy. So believing in the future of their company, they thought why not them, why not invest and share in the growth and success of Enron.



Exactly. If things had worked out and your co-workers caught a piece of good fortune and you were left kicking your behind.

Now with the benefit of hindsight everyone is kicking their behind.

Yes, plus you had management telling, heck selling, these people on the stock. At one point Lay et el were telling their employees they should be buying all the stock they could afford...all while selling off their own shares. Finally when it got to the point where people were beginning to spook they locked it all up and may it impossible for anyone to sell their shares.

 

[DeeJayH]

Well I've bit my tongue more then once. The urge to ask "WTF were you thinking?" is pretty strong at times. But I think he's all too aware of how dumb this was, hind sight it turns out is 20/20.

In a sense I think you had the perfect storm of sorts. You had more and more people throwing their money into this thing, no one was getting burned and people were showing up at work and reporting these huge gains. It almost got to the point where people who didn't put huge %'s in felt like they were the stupid ones. It's was like watching people jump off a cliff and they had such good results no one stopped to think "Umm, excuse me why are we all jumping off this cliff?"

hmmmm
that does raise an interesting point about Mob Mentality
when i was a stock broker a 'hot stock' would spread like wild fire and everybody wanted to pitch it because the excitment spread faster than AIDS, because everybody was making money on it
than news hit the wire and everybody sat there loooking at the ticker saying "OMG, how low can it go, get me out"
and considering all the .com employees that became .com millionaires, i guess it doesnt seem as stupid as i previously thought.

not to mention how many clients I and others had, that you could just tell were junkies. Like gambling addicts waiting to be sold on the next hot stock.

 

[BWG]

Yeah DeeJayH, I know what your talking about, but this situation was a little bit different. These Enron employees weren't investing in a 'hot tip', they were investing in themselves. They knew their competency level and felt the same about their fellow co-workers. They weren't making widgets that might go out of style next week, this was energy, a comodity that everyone had to have. Energy was going to be here forever. Their confidence in what they were doing was reenforced every day. They could see progress on a daily basis. They had the inside track on how things were going. They were shown past performances and future projections. They were making this thing work. They were making Enron successful. This was similar to a small business man starting his company and making it grow and prosper. They had no reason not to believe they would reap the rewards comparative to their contributions (monetary and personal). Another answer to the question of why put all your eggs in one basket is the stock option incentives. I don't know the minute details, but from what I gathered was, that if you bought Enron stock for your 401k plan, Enron would match it to a greater percentage than if you opted for another contribution.

Some people will still say it was just greed on their part and maybe you could generate a good argument for that, but would you consider the Bill Gates or Mark Cubans of the world greedy or opportunistic.

 

[danarhea]

Yes, plus you had management telling, heck selling, these people on the stock. At one point Lay et el were telling their employees they should be buying all the stock they could afford...all while selling off their own shares. Finally when it got to the point where people were beginning to spook they locked it all up and may it impossible for anyone to sell their shares.

The deplorable thing here is that Enron froze its employees assets so they could not diversify, but left the door open for themselves so they could dump what they had. The trial here in Houston is a virtual media circus, and coverage here is just about 24/7. Most Houston residents want Lay and Skilling hung by the balls.

 

[danarhea]

I am going to be putting some of the interesting emails they are finding in the Enron database in this thread from time to time (This one is from Bobby Eberle):

From: 5f807444@gopusa.com
To: findley.steve@enron.com, charles.weldon@enron.com
Subject: recording share transactions
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 07:41:49 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Guys,

I've got a question about shares. This past weekend, Kathleen and I began setting up the QuickBooks files for GOPUSA.com. We've got the checking set up, as well as accounts receivable and accounts payable.

It's going to take a lot of work to document all the 2001 activities because of lack of records, but at least from June 1, we will be totally on the ball.

How do we record shares as far as the balance sheet is concerned?

Recall, that currently, GOPUSA.com, Inc. holds 60,000 shares as treasury stock. I hold 32,000, and Bill holds 8,000. However, yesterday, I sold 1,000 shares to Kathleen's parents at $2/share. Thus, the company will now hold 59,000 shares, but $2,000 will be coming in. How do we account for this?

Take care,

Bobby

 

[Pacridge]

I am going to be putting some of the interesting emails they are finding in the Enron database in this thread from time to time (This one is from Bobby Eberle):

Maybe it's early,haven't had my full dose of caffeine yet, could you break that down so I understand the significance here?