As if we didn't know

CBS News has obtained tapes of Enron energy traders laughing and gloating among themselves over the California energy crisis that they created and then profited from by manipulating supplies and prices in the wake of California's deregulation of its energy market. They even celebrated when a massive forest fire shut down a transmission line into the state, cutting supplies and raising prices still further. "Burn, baby, burn. That's a beautiful thing," a trader is heard to say.

The tapes, from Enron's West Coast trading desk, also confirm what CBS reported years ago: that in secret deals with power producers, traders deliberately drove up prices by ordering power plants shut down.

"If you took down the steamer, how long would it take to get it back up?" an Enron worker is heard saying.

"Oh, it's not something you want to just be turning on and off every hour. Let's put it that way," another says.

"Well, why don't you just go ahead and shut her down."

The traders are clearly heard taking what can be most politely described as perverse glee in the rolling blackouts, crushing utility bills, and economic disruption they caused - and knew they were causing - as Enron "steals money from California ... to the tune of a million bucks or two a day," as one estimated.

One trader is heard on tapes obtained by CBS News saying, "Just cut 'em off. They're so fucked. They should just bring back fucking horses and carriages, fucking lamps, fucking kerosene lamps."

And when describing his reaction when a business owner complained about high energy prices, another trader is heard on tape saying, "I just looked at him. I said, 'Move.' (laughter) The guy was like horrified. I go, 'Look, don't take it the wrong way. Move. It isn't getting fixed anytime soon."

(The CBS story printed it as "f----d" and "f-----g." I filled in the blanks.)

The CBS report ends by noting that "the only top company official who has never been charged with any crime" is Ken "Kenny Boy, uh, I mean who?" Lay.

Footnote: The estimable Tom Tomorrow at This Modern World had a link to this story, at the end of which he said

[o]kay, John Kerry - that one has just been delivered to you gift wrapped with a lovely bow.

Well, here's what I think Kerry will do with the story:

Zilch.

Nothing. Nil. Nada. Zippo. Bupkis.

People, get a clue. Corporate America is not a force John Kerry wants to attack, it's a force he wants to be friends with. He has gone out of his way to reassure the corporatist types of the DLC and elsewhere that he is not a "redistributionist Democrat" and that they can feel safe and comfortable with a Kerry presidency. Based on his own campaign's website, his economic policy is little more than standard bromides about "protecting the middle class" (through tax cuts), "creating jobs" (through corporate tax cuts), and "unleash[ing] the productive potential of America's economy," lathered with a little populist rhetoric about "making corporate America live by America's values" which, it turns out, means nothing beyond enforcing existing law. You would be hard pressed to find anything that indicates that corporations need any additional controls.

Even when he talks tough about changing the tax system that favors corporations that maintain overseas bank accounts, he does it in the context of arguing that the resulting increase in revenue can be used to cut the overall corporate tax rate.

It's one thing to say "Enron" as sort of a generic term for corporate misdeeds, it's quite another to go after them directly and explicitly in a way that takes on the very ideas of "the free market" (Wasn't that, when you come right down to it, what California was?) and "deregulation," which was, after all and despite our persistent amnesia about it, what allowed for the debacle in the first place.

So I expect John Kerry to do absolutely nothing with this news.

Go ahead John, shoot me down. I'd be delighted.

Footnote to the footnote: In fairness - sometimes I hate being fair, it can really screw up a developing rant - actually enforcing the law would be a change for the better, if it actually were to happen. (A big "if," admittedly.) And Kerry does support an increase in the minimum wage, a standard Democratic Party position, and, more importantly, indexing it to inflation, which is generally anathema to Big Business. How important that is depends on how big an increase he's looking for and on what measure on inflation to which he would index it, but still, it's something.