Greg Ganske: “employees, pensioners, and investors who have seen their nest eggs disappear from Enron's bankruptcy speak of…”

“employees, pensioners, and investors who have seen their nest eggs disappear from Enron's bankruptcy speak of ``unbearable grief.'' They are also really angry that Enron's executives cashed out while, in many cases, they were locked in. One man told a congressional hearing, ``I could understand now why people jumped out of windows in the Great Depression.'' Several of my fellow Iowans who used to work for the Nebraska and Western Iowa Natural Gas Company that merged with Houston Natural Gas to become Enron have told me they have lost most of their life savings. I recently gave a talk to a Des Moines Rotary and two-thirds of the 200 people there have lost money in Enron, either directly or through their mutual funds. The personal toll has been enormous. There has even been a suicide by one of Enron's former executives who left the country with millions, but could not deal with the collapse of the company. The bankruptcy of Enron is the country's largest business failure. Its demise is rippling across our economy at a time when investor confidence was already shaky. What makes the Enron scandal so serious is that it is not an isolated case of corporate greed and fraud.”