Why does the Bush family think that jokes about accounting fraud are funny?
*Sigh.* And these are the people we're supposed to rely on to appoint the people in charge of making sure that companies are scared to report fake numbers
Posted by DeLong at December 17, 2002 12:03 PM | TrackbackEnron Videotape Surfaces: ...A videotape of a January 1997 going-away party for former Enron President Rich Kinder... half an hour of absurd skits, songs and testimonials.... In one skit, former Administrative Executive Peggy Menchaca played the part of Kinder as he received a budget report from then-President Jeff Skilling, who played himself, and Financial Planning Executive Tod Lindholm. When the pretend Kinder expressed doubt that Skilling could pull off 600 percent revenue growth for the coming year, Skilling revealed how it could be done. "We're going to move from mark-to-market accounting to something I call HFV, or hypothetical future value accounting," Skilling joked as he read from a script. "If we do that, we can add a kazillion dollars to the bottom line."
Richard Causey, the former chief accounting officer who was embroiled in many of the business deals named in the indictments of other Enron executives.... "I've been on the job for a week managing earnings, and it's easier than I thought it would be," Causey said, referring to a practice that is frowned upon by securities regulators....President George W. Bush, who then was governor of Texas, also took part in the skit, as did his father.At the party, the younger Bush pleaded with Kinder: "Don't leave Texas. You're too good a man." The governor's father also offered a send-off to Kinder, thanking him for helping his son reach the governor's mansion. "You have been fantastic to the Bush family," the elder Bush said. "I don't think anybody did more than you did to support George."...
Why am I not surprised?
Posted by: Dennis O'Dea on December 17, 2002 12:29 PM"Why does the Bush family think that jokes about accounting fraud are funny? "
Because they have a sense of humor, something that is missing in this post.
Posted by: Paved on December 17, 2002 01:09 PMAdds new meaning to the phrase "kinder, gentler America." And now the kinder are running Florida and the White House.
Posted by: jda on December 17, 2002 01:15 PMBecause it was a party?
Posted by: Brian on December 17, 2002 01:25 PM"Why does the Bush family think that jokes about accounting fraud are funny? "
Because they have a sense of humor, something that is missing in this post."
That is absolutely correct. Nobody at that time in the Bush family had any reason to believe that a real crime was taking place. Why not make a joke about accounting scandals? The very premise of humor is almost always at someone's expense.
Posted by: David Thomson on December 17, 2002 01:40 PMAh yes, the old sense of humor excuse.
Given G.W.Bush's personal history with Harken, we can only conclude that he genuinely felt (feels) that defrauding shareholders is funny. The skit must have really resonated with him.
Posted by: on December 17, 2002 01:46 PM"Why does the Bush family think that jokes about accounting fraud are funny? "
Because they're laughing all the way to the bank?
Because it was a light-hearted celebratory occasion, and they were winging it?
Posted by: RonK, Seattle on December 17, 2002 05:23 PM>>Because it was a light-hearted celebratory occasion, and they were winging it?<<
Having been at a number of "light-hearted" celebratory occasions myself, I want to advance the hypothesis that the jokes told at such occasions are not unconnected with reality, but are of the "ha-ha-only-serious" variety. Characteristics are exaggerated, yes. The point is to amuse people, yes. But if people at the (say) Economics Department graduate studen party laugh as the guy playing me goes off into wild irrelevancies about what is tattooed on George Shultz's butt, it is not because I am impossible to distract and never wander from the planned thread of the lecture. If people laugh because the guy playing George Akerlof begins by defining two symbols, "big O" and "little O", which he then draws on the blackboard as "o" and "o," it is not because George's blackboard work is always pellucid.
Posted by: Brad DeLong on December 17, 2002 05:59 PMI suppose I should have said Because it was a "light-hearted celebratory occasion, and they were winging it"?
And yes, I agree, the germ of truth oft runs pathologically amok when high spirited host organisms gather near to us.
Posted by: RonK, Seattle on December 17, 2002 08:20 PMThe phrase that comes to mind is "in vino veritas" ...
Posted by: dsquared on December 17, 2002 11:14 PMTangential to which, the claims above of a "sense of humor" for the Bush family being made above are somewhat undercut by the fact that the jokes mentioned are not funny.
Posted by: dsquared on December 17, 2002 11:15 PMBrad: Why exactly are you smearing the entire Bush family with this? Do you believe Bush the elder actually knew fraud was being committed at Enron? Is this one of those humorless attacks on black humor? I think you should probably delete the post entirely.
Posted by: JT on December 18, 2002 06:14 AMJT -- I think one can reasonably argue that persons of integrity should be at least circumspect in associating their personal reputations with an enterprise premised on extracting unlimited financial gains from a stream of activity that has no discernable value-additive elements.
That said, hindsight throws things in harsher light than foresight.
Posted by: RonK, Seattle on December 18, 2002 09:05 AMOh, come on, RonK. You're expecting Bush the Elder to know what none of the dozens of financial analysts covering Enron knew at the time. The negative judgement is entirely based on hindsight.
Posted by: JT on December 18, 2002 12:17 PM“Oh, come on, RonK. You're expecting Bush the Elder to know what none of the dozens of financial analysts covering Enron knew at the time. The negative judgement is entirely based on hindsight."
I live in Houston and the devastating news concerning Enron occurred virtually overnight. The collapse came so quickly that most of us were barely able to catch our breath. I am admittedly not an insider and barely paid attention to the everyday workings of Enron. Still, the overwhelming evidence that I’ve seen suggest that the Bush family had no warning of the impending disaster.
PS: I coincidentally just posted a very brief book review of “Anatomy of Greed: The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider by Brian Cruver” on the Amazon.com community board. Please feel free to vote “not helpful” if you wish.
Posted by: David Thomson on December 19, 2002 09:13 AM