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I believe that they started off as well intentioned.

I don't think these two men should go to prison for the rest of their lives for trying to live up to the "American Dream". Deep down, we all know they are not really guilty, but acted in a manner that made them do all to control an out of control situation with a company where there were too many decision makers in the ranks and too many bright ideas that needed to be turned into profit for fear of job loss.

It could have happened to any of us. Success and appearing to do well when we are not are part of many of peoples lives today. Enron was no exception.

McKinsey is full of incredibly smart out-of-the-box thinkers and I wonder if anyone at McKinsey was involved in devising some of the ingenious (albeit illegal) schemes at Enron and why this question has never been asked...

I'll be keeping track of what other blogs are saying about the Ken Lay/Jeff Skilling verdicts here. If you spot a thoughtful post related to the verdicts that's not already here, e-mail me. I'll post new ones at the top.......

Skilling, especially, and Lay are quite possibly guilty. I merely note that this is an extraordinarily complicated set of charges and the nature of corporate span of control is such that it's possible that top level people didn't know everything that was going on.

If the television images of orange jump-suit clad energy executives being frog-marched off to federal prison will cause a knot to form in the stomachs of all the other oil and energy executives that have recently come under investigation for illegally manipulating prices.

Uh, Mac, would those be the same executives that the FTC just found weren't manipulating prices?

Look, I know folks really want a conspiracy to be responsible for higher gas prices, problem is, we, the consumers and voters, are the conspiracy. Here's how we did it:

1. Buy fuel inefficient cars and trucks (it ain't just SUVs folks, its all those sports cars and high performance sedans that drink the gas too).

2. Limit drilling for known reserves (ANWR, both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the entire coast of Florida).

3. Put tight restrictions on new refineries so none have been built for decades, thus causing refining capacity to fall behind demand.

4. Insist on an oxygenate (ethanol)that's expensive to make, and that can't be shipped by pipeline, only by tanker truck or car, thus reducing capacity even more.

It's a perfectly rational choice to want to protect wildlife and beaches, have cleaner burning fuel, and drive vehicles with big, roaring engines, but the price is high fuel costs. It's like the old engineer's motto, your project can be any two of these three, Right, Cheap, Quick.

Gordon Smith joins Larry Ribstein and James Joyner in wondering why Jeffrey Skilling was convicted on all the fraud and conspiracy but acquitted on all but one of the insider trading counts:So the question remains: how could he have been...

From CNN:Skilling was found guilty on 19 counts of conspiracy, fraud, false statements and insider trading. He was found not guilty on eight counts of insider trading. Lay was found guilty on all six counts of conspiracy and fraud.Quick Many...

If the television images of orange jump-suit clad energy executives being frog-marched off to federal prison will cause a knot to form in the stomachs of all the other oil and energy executives that have recently come under investigation for illegally manipulating prices.

Muhahaha.