 Enron_List: for Enron_List articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
Posted on 08/25/2002 10:15:57 AM PDT by Republican_Strategist
Who lobbies for Enron?
Greg Simon
With eleven years of policy development and implementation expertise in the Congress and the White House, Greg Simon has extensive experience with all aspects of the Executive Office of the President, the Office of the Vice President, the U.S. Congress, Cabinet departments, Executive agencies, the European Union (including the governments of many member nations), private corporations and academic institutions. He has experience in and knowledge of domestic and international issues and trends in telecommunications, information technology, education, media, biotechnology, space exploration and research and development policy. Greg also has extensive experience in public presentations and press communications.
Prior to founding Simon Strategies/Mindbeam in 1997, Greg Simon was the Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore. In that position, Greg was the Vice President's top advisor on economic, science and technology issues. He represented the Vice President in such policymaking bodies as the National Economic Council, the Domestic Policy Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and numerous interagency task forces.
In case you have not figured it out...Democrats do!
|
Enron_List: for Enron_List articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
Robert Belfer
Harvard affiliation: JD, Harvard; Patron of Harvard's Belfer Center for International and Strategic Affairs; Harvard Committee on University Resources (1982-1989); Member of Visiting Board of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government
Enron affiliation: Enron's largest stockholder, Enron Director since 1985
Sanjay Bhatnagar
Harvard affiliation: MBA, Harvard
Enron affiliation: CEO of Enron India
Peter Fisher
Harvard affiliation: JD, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Undesecretary of the Treasury; implicated in Enron scandal Citgroup Chairman Robert Rubin (see below) called Mr. Fisher to inquire about the possibility of Federal intervention in support of Enron. The New York Times reports:
It was Fisher's role as the administration's liaison to the markets that led Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary who is now chairman of the executive committee at Citigroup, one of Enron's two main lenders, to call him about the situation.
It also made Mr. Fisher a natural point of contact for Enron itself. Whether simply to keep the government informed of financial problems at the dominant player in the burgeoning business of trading energy, as Enron says it was doing, or seeking assistance as it fought to survive, as the administration has suggested twice in recent days was the case, Mr. Fisher was clearly the go-to guy.
In a government filing, Fisher recently disclosed that he owns at least 10,000 shares of Enron stock.
Pankaj Ghemawat
Harvard affiliation: Professor, Harvard Business School; MBA, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Member, Enron advisory council
William Hogan
Harvard affiliation: Professor, Kennedy School of Government; Director, Harvard Electric Policy Group (HEPG)
Enron affiliation: HEPG receives Enron funding
Jonathon Jacobson
Harvard affiliation: AB, MBA, Harvard; currently manages in excess of $2 billion of Harvard's endowment through Highfields Capital
Enron affiliation: Highfields Capital, and Harvard in-turn, short-sold nearly 3 million Enron shares just prior to the collapse of the stock
Lawrence Lindsey
Harvard affiliation: MA and Ph. D, Harvard; former Harvard faculty, Department of Economics
Enron affiliation: Chief White House economist; Enron advisory board; Citigroup consultant Lindsey's proximity to the president place him at the center of inquiry regarding Enron's relationship to the White House before and after the company's collapse. The New York Times reports, "Before he became the president's top economic counselor, Lawrence B. Lindsey was a paid adviser to Enron." Lindsey's position at Enron and consulting for Citigroup, Enron's banker, will continue to raise questions about the White House's relationship to the Enron scandal.
Rebecca Mark
Harvard affiliation: MBA, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Former Chairman of Enron International, Former CEO of Enron subsidiary Azurix
Once lauded by the business press, Mark took the fall for Enron's failed effort to privatize the world's water supply through its Azurix subsidiary.
Ms. Mark is named as a defendant in the most prominent lawsuit against Enron. She executed insider trades of 1.4 million shares, pocketing $79.4 million before the company collapsed.
John Mendelsohn
Harvard affiliation: AB, MD, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Enron Director The New York Times reports, "Also on the board is Dr. John Mendelsohn, president of the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, one of Houston's most prestigious institutions. Enron has donated more than $600,000 to the center in the last five years."
Mr. Mendelsohn's ability to serve as a director while receiving large donations from the company has been questioned.
Paulo V. Ferraz Pereira
Harvard affiliation: MBA, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Enron director; Former President and CEO, State Bank of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
William C. Powers, Jr.
Harvard affiliation: JD, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Enron director
Robert Rubin
Harvard affiliation: AB, Harvard, 1966; Honorary Doctorate, 2001; former Director, Harvard Management Company;
Enron affiliation: Chairman of the Board, Citigroup (Enron's largest creditor)
John M. Seidl
Harvard affiliation: MPP and Ph. D, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Former Enron COO and director Marc Shapiro Harvard affiliation: AB, Harvard Enron affiliation: Vice Chairman, Chase Manhattan Bank (major Enron creditor) In recent profiles, both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have focused on Shapiro's awkward position as Chase's conduit with Enron, its major creditor.
Jeffrey Skilling
Harvard affiliation: MBA, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Former Enron CEO; former Enron Director Perhaps the pivotal figure in the Enron scandal, Skilling is considered the architect of Enron's high-risk trading system.
The New York Times reports that Skilling, "received $66.9 million for 1.1 million shares. Beginning in December 2000, Mr. Skilling began to sell his holdings at a pace of 10,000 shares about every seven days. He still owns about 600,000 shares and options, according to public filings."
While at McKinsey in the 1980s, Skilling reported to Harvard Corporation member and Harvard Treasurer D. Ronald Daniel.
John B. Wing
Harvard affiliation: MBA, Harvard
Enron affiliation: Former Chairman, Enron Power Group and Enron Cogeneration Co. (owner)
Herbert "Pug" Winokur
Harvard affiliation: A. B., Ph. D, Harvard; Member of Harvard Corporation; Director, Harvard Management Company
Enron affiliation: Enron Director since 1985; Chair, Enron Finance Committee; Former Chairman, Azurix Corporation (Enron subsidiary)
Robert B. Zoellick
Harvard affiliation: J. D., MPP, Harvard; former director and faculty member of Harvard's Belfer Center
Enron affiliation: U. S. Trade Representative; Enron Advisory Board; board member of Alliance Capital, major Enron shareholder
Source:Trading Truth: Harvard's Enron Entanglements summary and recommendations
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~skomarov/harvardwatch/trading_truth_summary.pdf
Full report:
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~skomarov/harvardwatch/trading_truth_full.pdf
Home Page (some HTML):
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~skomarov/harvardwatch/
Rubin appointed to Harvard Corporation
By Associated Press,
4/7/2002CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin was appointed to Harvard University's executive governing board, the university announced Sunday.
Rubin, who served as President Clinton's Treasury Secretary from 1995 to 1999, will join the Harvard Corporation on July 1, 2002. . .
As one of the board's seven members, Rubin will work closely with university President Lawrence Summers, who served as deputy in Rubin's Treasury Department. Summers was appointed to the top post in 1999 when Rubin left to become chairman of the executive committee of financial giant Citigroup. . .
Rubin's appointment came two days after the resignation of another Harvard Corporation fellow, Herbert Winokur, head of the finance committee on Enron's board of directors, announced Friday that he would step down from the Harvard board, citing concerns that his connection to the bankrupt energy giant had become a distraction. . .MORE
Many similarities between the way Fastow busted out Enron and the way Harvard participated in the privitization ( mafia looting) of Russia
June 27, 2002US Seeking $102M From Harvard, Pair
By THANASSIS CAMBANIS,
The Boston GlobeAfter settlement negotiations with Harvard University broke down, the US Department of Justice yesterday asked a federal judge to order Harvard and the two men who ran an economic reform program in Russia to repay the government $102 million, contending they mismanaged the development project.
The 130-page motion filed in US District Court, along with hundreds of pages of memos and depositions, chronicles in extraordinary detail the government's allegations against Harvard, economics professor Andrei Shleifer, and his former deputy at the Harvard Institute for International Development, Jonathan Hay, including charges they invested in companies directly affected by advice they gave the government. . . .
Full article
As on so many things, I think Ann Coulter has the right slant on the "pox on both their houses" approach. If journalism is unbiased, then when you read the paper or watch the news you are getting a fair representation of the virtues and defects of the two predominant parties and of their candidates/elected officials. But the idea that journalism is objective should be viewed as a hypothesis to be tested before being accepted.If you weigh the evidence on both sides of that ledger, you find that hypothesis is supported by three things:
First and foremost, journalists say that they are objective. They create editorial pages of frank opinion which has the effect of suggesting that the rest of the paper is not mere opinion.On the other hand, you find support for the idea that the hypothesis is untrue:Secondly, Democrats and Republicans complain that journalism is stacked against them. That suggests that the truth might lie somewhere in between. And,
both Democrats and republicans make regular appearances on TV public affairs programs, and partisans are presented to balance each other.
First, there is a revolving door between the (by hypothesis objective) news reporters (as opposed to "analysts" whose opinions are not positioned as being objecitve) and only one of the parties.The argument in favor of accepting journalism as objective boils down to laziness and intellectual sloppiness.Second, the First Amendment is not predicated on the idea that journalism will be objective or even that journalism (as distinguished for example from books) is, by itself, "the press." There is in fact a logical presumption that a book will tend to be more valid than a newspaper article simply because of the added time available to the author and editor to fact-check and so forth. But even for books--never mind journalism--the First Amendment implies "let the reader beware" and not its opposite.
And speaking of books, Coulter's Slander has 35 pages of footnotes. In order even to begin the Sisyphusen task of proving the negative of "no bias in journalism" one would have to show that all of them are tendentious or irrelevant.
TIMELINE OF HARVARD-ENRON INVOLVEMENT IN DEREGULATION SCHEMES1993
Harvard establishes the Enron-funded Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG) at its Kennedy School of Government (KSG). This is during the period when Robert Belfer, long-time Enron director and the company's largest shareholder, sits on the KSG's Visiting Board overseeing the school. HEPG begins producing and promoting what now total 1,000 reports on electricity deregulation, with at least 70 focusing specifically on California.1994
Jan, Sept:
Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling presents two proposals for energy deregulation in California and elsewhere at HEPG events.
Aug:
HEPG's research director, William Hogan, urges the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to deregulate its electricity market according to what he calls the "Enron model" — precisely the model that Enron had already used to deregulate and manipulate the gas market.Skilling endorses Hogan's suggestion to the CPUC, helping to consolidate a consensus.
New England utilities hire Hogan to participate in industry planning talks. Hogan steers the talks toward a deregulation agenda, and publicly announces that "About the only thing that won't change over time is that when you flip the switch the lights will still go on."
1995
July:
Hogan endorses the CPUC plan.
Dec:
CPUC votes to deregulate the electricity market.1996
Aug:
Hogan leads a delegation to FERC's conference in Washington, D. C. to push for California deregulation.Sept:
Hogan tells California's elected officials, "If it comes down to a take-it-or-leave- it decision, then my advice is to take it." ° California's Governor Pete Wilson signs deregulation legislation.1997
Enron launches a national advertising campaign to promote electricity deregulation. Hogan advises Congress not to pass legislation restricting deregulation. HEPG Executive Director Ashley Hogan complains to the Boston Globe that New England deregulation is not moving quickly enough.1998
California deregulation takes effect, as utilities divest of generating plants. Consumer prices remain capped until this process continues; it is expected to finish by 2002.Sept:
HEGP produces the first of two reports hailing California for providing "reliability through markets."
Hogan advocates deregulation in Montana, a state where electricity prices are already so low that MIT economist Paul Joskow admits, "I don't know of anyone that can provide power cheaper." Montana's deregulation scheme eventually sends wholesale prices to ten times their former levels and causes 1,000 workers to lose their jobs.1999
Summer:
San Diego Gas and Electric becomes the first major utility company to lift consumer price caps. Over the next year, as wholesale prices climb, San Diego consumers see their electric bills triple.Nov:
HEGP produces the second of two reports hailing California for providing "reliability through markets."2000
May:
California's electricity crisis begins. Recent memos released indicate that Enron was manipulating the market to increase its profit, and in the process exacerbating the crisis for the public.July:
Hogan and Skilling publicly oppose price caps to protect consumers.
Oct:
HEPG Executive Director Ashley Brown testifies with Enron's Director of Government Affairs for the Americas to the Vermont Public Service Board, which oversees electricity policy for the state.2001
Jan:
Hogan tells the Los Angeles Times that he opposes long-term energy contracts in California which would insulate against the volatility of prices and services delivered by the deregulated market.March:
Hogan testifies on Enron's behalf to the Texas Public Utilities Commission to guide that state's deregulatory process.March:
HEPG and Enron present on privatization and deregulation at the Brazil Energy 2001 Conference.June:
Hogan opposes price caps for California in June testimony to Congress.Enron leads energy producers and marketers in campaign contributions and lobbying expenses for elections in California, spending $645 million (http:// www. commoncause. org/ publications/ may01/ castudy. htm). The company would stand to lose if price caps and other re-regulatory measures were introduced. California introduces price caps, and prices fall.
Questions about Enron's finances emerge, and Enron declares bankruptcy.
William Hogan
Harvard affiliation:
Professor, Kennedy School of Government; Research Director, Harvard Electric Policy Group (HEPG)Enron affiliation:
HEPG receives Enron funding; HEPG has promoted proposals for deregulation in California and elsewhere by Enron's Jeffrey Skilling; Hogan has testified for Enron to state regulatory boards; Hogan worked closely with Enron to design and promote deregulatory schemes in California and elsewhere.Robert Rubin
Harvard affiliation:
AB, Harvard, 1966; Honorary Doctorate, 2001; former Director, Harvard Management Company; most recent addition to Harvard Corporation.Enron affiliation:
Chairman of the Board, Citigroup (Enron's largest creditor); Established relationship with Enron CEO Kenneth Lay in late 1980s while at Goldman, Sachs, a major Enron financier; Lay offered Rubin a position on Enron's board; as Enron collapsed, Rubin asked a former employee at the Treasury Department to intercede to maintain the corporation's credit ratings; involved in CA deregulation crisis as an advisor to Governor Gray Davis.Lawrence Summers
Harvard Affiliation:
Ph. D., Harvard, 1982; Harvard Professor, 1983-1991; Harvard University President and member of the Harvard Corporation.Enron Affiliation:
As U. S. Treasury Secretary, promised Enron CEO Kenneth Lay that "I'll keep my eye on power deregulation and energy-market infrastructure issues." Consulted with Goldman, Sachs when the firm was becoming a major Enron financier; it is unknown whether he provided research or advice on Goldman's Enron account.http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~skomarov/harvardwatch/deregulation_deception_appendices.pdf
We came to a similiar conclusion, but my "country boy" logic got there in one short sentence. Your "college boy" logic took 32 lines. Hehe - sitting there on that sack of seed.
My point is that in fact the parties are in fact very different, and in the opposite way to that portrayed by journalism. The party which consistently gets a free pass from journalism is able to get away with falsely accusing the other side, and even if the accused can clear itself, the accuser pays no price and can just throw another accusation, and then another.
The upshot is that the party which looks the worst (in the light cast by journalism) actually is the best. It has to be, because its sins will be shown up by journalism. The party that journalism tries to make look the best, doesn't have to be much good at all--and consequently is rotten to the core.
"Both sides do it" is therefore granting the biggest liar half of what he asked for. And if he knows he'll get half of what he asked for, all he has to do is ask for twice what he hopes to get. Honest judgement requires more than a dismissive "both sides do it." And the biggest liar only needs to fool the laziest half the people, the ones who won't really scrutinize the facts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.