Political Quotes

“over a year ago the greed of some senior executives at the Enron corporation finally caught up with them. Enron's financial house of cards began to tumble, and along with it went the pensions and retirement dreams of thousands of employees and investors. Among the employees whose pensions were crushed in Enron's accounting avalanche were nearly all of Portland General Electric, or PGE's 2,700 employees in Oregon. Enron took over PGE in June of 1997, and two years later merged the PGE employee 401(k) retirement plan into a single plan. That plan allowed employees to contribute up to 15 percent of their income, with the company matching in Enron stock. When Enron took over PGE in 1997, PGE's stock was trading at $27 a share; three years after the merger, Enron stock was trading at $85 a share, enticing employees to invest 100 percent of their 401(k) money in Enron stock. Enron's stock had begun to slide in August 2001, and it was not until October that real panic set in. At that time the captains of the Enron ship knew it was sinking. In an effort to prevent a massive stock sell-off, senior executives on the deck locked workers in the boiler room, preventing them from selling off 401(k) shares while they dumped their own. By the time the pension lockdown ended, an Enron share was worth less than ten dollars. In early December, Enron filed for bankruptcy.”