Enron’s Ken Lay dies of natural causes
Oh Kenny Boy, the Pipes, the Pipes Are Calling… Or, Bush Declares It Best Birthday Ever
Jeff Skilling to be Visited Tonight by Three Ghosts
Yes, it’s a sad thing when anyone dies. The end of life is the ultimate finality, a fate from which none of us will escape. When death comes suddenly and unexpectedly, it’s a sad thing for the loved ones a person leaves behind. Having said that, if you’re looking for me to get all weepy over Ken Lay’s sudden demise, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. If the measure of a man is the amount of good will he leaves behind, then Ken Lay suffered from a serious karmic deficit.
Lay was a man who could have been rememberd for so many positive things. Enron, the company he built, could have been something wonderful, and for awhile it was. It’s just too bad that all those good things Enron did were built on the soft foundation of lies, deception, and greed.
Ken Lay could have been remembered in Houston as a man generous of spirit and generous with both his wealth and that of Enron. Instead, he will be remembered as just another amoral, ethically bereft corporate greedhead caught with his hand in the corporate cookie jar. Here was a man who for so many years was looked up to as a pillar of the community, a man who championed corporate ethics and doing the right way. Enron devoted a LOT of attention to ethics. I know this because I was a contractor at Enron for several months, ending shortly after 9.11. Enron employees and contractors were frequently reminded of the importance of doing things the right way. One of the things that impressed me about Enron was the fact that ethical behavior was an ingrained part of the corporate culture. Sadly, like everything else about Enron, that turned out to be just so much smoke and mirrors.
The thing I remember most about Ken Lay is his August, 2001 appearance at an company-wide meeting and webcast. After almost five years, I’ve long since forgotten the specifics of what Lay said, but he very clearly painted a picture indicating that Enron was a strong company in excellent shape, and no one had anything to worry about. In retrospect, it appears that Lay knew even then that his house of cards was about to fall around him, and he was simply trying to forestall the inevitable. Not so very long afterwards, the company’s stock price went into the toilet, taking the retirement plans of thousands of employees with it. Ken Lay was as responsible for the demise of Enron as anyone. In the space of a few short months, Lay went from being paragon to pariah. How he could manage to continue to show his face in Houston is something I’ll never understand.
Pardon me if I don’t mourn the passing of Ken Lay. Considering the financial and emotional damage his overarching greed and venality visited upon so many of his previously faithful employees, he should have his ticket to Hell punched forthwith. No waiting, no delays, go directly to the head of the line…and if there’s any justice in this world, Lay will find a welcoming committee composed of former Enron employees with scores to settle.
Bon voyage, Kenny Boy….may your afterlife be a miserably painful and exceedingly unpleasant one. You deserve nothing less.
