From: Sir Arthur C. B. E. Wholeflaffers A.S.A. <nospam@newsranger.com>
References: <bi0abd$1b20$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>
Subject: Re: History, history, history
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Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 20:07:29 GMT
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In article <bi0abd$1b20$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, Emilie F. Nichols says...

We're just not learing anything about deregulation and privatization.  It
means the costs are billed to the public and taxpayers, while the profits are
privatized to the corporations and investors (only the big ones).  Regular
people are just told to open their wallets, but have no say in policy.

History:

1) Sam Insull (the Ken Lay of his day).  Arthur Andersen (the original) was
Insull's accountant.  Insull was the impetus for the Public Utility Holding
Company Act of 1935 (PUCHA), the Investment Company Act of 1940, and the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  Insull was extradited from Paris to
the US for investigation.

2) Enron received an exemption under the PUCHA and the Investment Company Act
under Clinton's administration.  I think the NYT and the WSJ reported that it
was signed by Arthur Levitt.  That action allowed for the special purpose
entities (SPEs) -- about 600+ of them at last count.  That caused a "stock
bubble" that burst big time.

3) DeLay, Barton, and Shelby sought exemptions for Westar (formerly Western
Resources) from PUCHA.  Action to stop that exemption was put forth by Markey.
See Public Citizen web site for emails and other documentation on their web
site.  http://www.citizen.org.

4) The telecommunications firms were set loose to lay fiber optic cable all
over the place.  Result:  a lot of "dark fiber" (i.e., unused) was left.  No
way for customers to hook up to "the last mile".  Also too expensive for most
individuals.  Another stock bubble.  $7 trillion in value wiped from the stock
market.

5) Railroad tycoons did the same thing building railroads that went nowhere or
were parallel to other existing lines.  Farmers could not pay the fees to get
their goods to market.

How many times are we going to go through this without any lessons learned and
our pocketbooks bare?

When will Congress and the state legislatures act on the side of consumers,
taxpayers?

Regards,
Emilie