The Big Picture

Don't say you weren't warned

The scandals in the telecom industry are, as anyone should realise, only part of a bigger picture. News media first became aware of this round of scandals with the Enron disaster in the fall of 2001. But Enron is hardly the first company to go tits up like this, or have executives ripping off the little guy like this. And Gary Winnick learned his moves with Michael Milken, so this game must indeed be a very old one.

Greed is not good - it's addictive, and money and power junkies will do almost anything for their rush. They will screw their friends and associates, and when the going gets tough they will all gang together and screw the little guy.

Make no mistake: Getting your friends on Wall Street to push your stock when you know your company is failing, when you've cooked the books to make things look better than they really are, means you are a loser. It means you were not successful in building your dream, your vision, into a reality. But these crooks are not visionaries, and the only dreams they ever have are about offshore bank accounts and parties with the Queen.

Despite what it may at first appear to be, these are not entrepreneurs. They have nothing to contribute to society. They may seem to be building up societies of the future, but all they really are doing is finding a way to make money. And that is why they are bad. As the hyenas now move in to feast at the carrion these fools have left behind, the onlookers realise that there is precious little to be gained from all the boardroom meetings, all the floated loans, all the wasted capital.

Yet they will go on. They will stand, to use a turn of phrase popular with the father of the current US president. They might go in and out of the big picture, and a few might spend a few months or a few short years in privileged circumstances behind bars, but none of them will lose their birthright or their fortunes, none will lose membership in theirs the most exclusive club on earth. They are the untouchables.

That's the big picture.