Enron Traders Caught On TapeTo borrow a phrase from the story - you guys are so f---ed.
See the video here
(CBS) When a forest fire shut down a major transmission line into California, cutting power supplies and raising prices, Enron energy traders celebrated, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports.
"Burn, baby, burn. That's a beautiful thing," a trader sang about the massive fire.
Four years after California's disastrous experiment with energy deregulation, Enron energy traders can be heard - on audiotapes obtained by CBS News - gloating and praising each other as they helped bring on, and cash-in on, the Western power crisis.
"He just f---s California," says one Enron employee. "He steals money from California to the tune of about a million."
"Will you rephrase that?" asks a second employee.
"OK, he, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day," replies the first.
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.
Tuesday, June 1
It's Not Too Late To Apologize To Gray Davis, Y'Know.
Like THAT'S gonna happen. But CBS News has tapes of ENRON jackals bragging about how they screwed California during its energy crisis. If talk about "corporate shenanigans" bores you to death, this will wake your sorry ass up.
