An op-ed column in the San Francisco Chronicle suggests some close parallels between the respective failures of Enron and George Bush. The fraud that led to Enron’s collapse, according to Alex Epstein, was the outcome of a determined effort to elevate ideology above reality and then to conceal the predictable results of that effort.

“[T}o Skilling and other Enron executives," says Epstein, "there was no clear distinction between what they felt should succeed, and what the facts indicated would succeed -- between reality as they wished it to be and reality as it is."

Sound familiar? Epstein passes over the tendency of Enron executives to line their own pockets and those of their friends and family in the course of bilking investors, but what he does address could, with the alteration of but a few words, pass as well for an indictment of Bush and his coterie as for Lay and his.

Time and again, Enron executives placed their wishes above the facts. As they experienced failure after failure, they deluded themselves into believing that any losses would somehow be overcome with massive profits in the future. This mentality led them to eagerly accept CFO Andy Fastow's absurd claims that their losses could be magically taken off the books using Special Purpose Entities; after all, they felt, Enron should have a high stock price.

Smaller lies led to bigger lies, until Enron became the biggest corporate failure and fraud in American history.

There's not too much space between that and the mindset that led to the tragedy of errors that is the invasion and occupation of Iraq, or the administration's policies toward North Korea and Iran. Let us again turn to Ron Suskind's memorable quote from an unnamed "senior administration official.

The aide said that guys like me were ‘’in what we call the reality-based community,'’ which he defined as people who ‘’believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ‘’That’s not the way the world really works anymore,'’ he continued. ‘’We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'’

And here's a passage from Epstein's column, only slightly modified to address Iraq rather than one of the Enron fiascos.

Unfortunately, the administration's leaders were not honest with themselves about the nature of their success. They wanted to be "New Empire" geniuses, who could successfully embark on any adventure they wished. As a result, they entered into ventures far beyond their expertise, based on half-baked ideas thought to be profound foreign policy insights. For example, the administration poured billions into the invasion of Iraq on ludicrous assurances by a collection of ideologues and con men that the invasion would pay for itself.
[...]
An analysis of the situation “told a damning story … chances of success were razor thin, massive troop commitments were required.” Bush’s response? “You’re making me really nervous … The fact that you’re focused on the numbers, and not the underlying essence of the policy, worries me … I don’t want to hear that.”

Here’s the original passage:

Unfortunately, the company’s leaders were not honest with themselves about the nature of their success. They wanted to be “New Economy” geniuses, who could successfully enter any market they wished. As a result, they entered into ventures far beyond their expertise, based on half-baked ideas thought to be profound market insights. For example, Enron poured billions into a broadband network featuring movies-on-demand — without bothering to check whether movie studios would provide major releases (they wouldn’t).
[...]
An analysis of the numbers, [a subordinate] had realized, “told a damning story … Profit margins were razor thin, massive capital investments were required.” Skilling’s response? “You’re making me really nervous … The fact that you’re focused on the numbers, and not the underlying essence of the business, worries me … I don’t want to hear that.”

No wonder Bush was so fond of the late Kenny Boy: they shared the same profoundly dangerous defect. Unfortunately, Bush is operating on a vastly greater scale, and his delusions, so profitable for the few, are getting people killed instead of bankrupted.

Bookmark and Share

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments Connotea del.icio.us

Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com Furl Google

Hugg Jamespot Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo LinkedIn LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace MyWeb

Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot Sphere

Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Twitter Webride Windows Live Worlds Movies Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

More »

Powered by Bookmarkify™