The verdict came down on the corporate criminals, Messrs Lay and Skilling, both are guilty on multiple counts. Mr. Lay was, in fact, found guilty on all counts brought by the prosecution, ten in total. Mr. Skilling was found guilty on nineteen of twenty-eight counts. I'm glad. It seemed pretty clear they were intentionally misleading the public, their shareholders, employees, etc.
Now if only the selfish and unethical energy traders who were causing power-outages in California can be charged too. Three cheers for criminal prosecution: an important weapon in the arsenal to force capitalists to act more ethically. I wonder if our society might connect the dots and realize that efficiently and rigorously regulating capitalism is a social good. One can only hope.
