The deregulation that ended up screwing over everyone wasn’t really energy deregulation (that screwed some people in California) it was the deregulation of the accounting firms, allowing them to be consultants and auditors which caused the problem.

What Enron did, was to sell energy rights between divisions, thus raising revenues with out raising profits. This was done in the exuberance of the 90’s where only revenue mattered to the Stock Market, and not profit. This coupled with purchases of subidaries that had cash payment triggered on Stock Prices falling below a certain price caused to the stock to plummet when it the stock market ‘adjustment’ happened. An independent accounting firm would have said that this was not a common accounting practice and stopped it early.

As for the people who worked there, where they really got screwed was in the the fact that people higher up the chain got to divest themselves of the Stock when it was high, while the workers could not. However, they all were benefiting from the shadiness when their pensions and 401ks were having 300% returns.

Either way, isn’t that justice served?

One squalid death in Colorado? I’m not sure. Either way, those people aren’t ever getting their pensions.

If it wasn’t Ken Lay fucking people over in the deregulation free-for-all, it would have been someone else, y’know? So he was convicted, and now he’s dead, and nothing changes.

If justice ever comes, and I have no idea what it could look like if it does, I don’t think it would be as simple as this.