NP? "Hard to tell which is the parody, isn't it? "

[Doug Millison]

Published on Wednesday, July 31, 2002 in the Boulder Daily Camera
Politics Cleared Way for Financial Scandals
by Molly Ivins
AUSTIN, Texas - The New Yorker magazine published an amusing parody on
recent business scandals last week, including this gem: "Mr. Cheney called
for an end to innuendo about his activities in a now bankrupt Pitcairn
Island firm that sold itself the air rights to a million acres of West
Texas flatlands, deducted the transaction from its taxes as an
entertainment expense, then borrowed $14 million interest-free from the
Liechtenstein bank it owned, using its assets of company-acquired Callaway
golf clubs as collateral, to finance the purchase of gifts for some
Bessarabian oil prospectors who were then passing through Dallas."

The Wall Street Journal published this less-amusing account of the dealings
of Enron's bankers: "About a decade ago, Chase Manhattan Bank (now merged
with J.P. Morgan) set up a special-purpose entity named Mahonia. Its very
special purpose was to reduce Enron's taxes. By trading preferred oil and
gas contracts with Mahonia, Enron was able to transfer its tax liabilities
from one period to another.

"As the years rolled by, the cash-up-front property of the contracts proved
irresistible, and Enron increasingly tapped Mahonia as a source of
financing. The money flowed back and forth, the size of the transactions
grew bigger and bigger, and the repayment periods got longer and longer.
Enron booked the money as cash from trading operations, thereby pumping up
its cash flow and obscuring the size of its debt. Meanwhile, Morgan hedged
its risk with credit derivatives and surety bonds from insurance companies.

"Citigroup's structured financing was similar. The bank set up schemes -
with names like Yosemite, Delta and Roosevelt - designed to make the
financing of Enron look like trading activity. Money was raised from
investors through the sale of credit-linked notes. Then Citigroup shipped
that money to offshore special-purpose entities which, in turn, sent the
money back to Enron, allowing Enron to borrow money but record the loans as
prepay contracts.

"The result of this daisy chain was that Enron got almost $9 billion that
may have overstated its cash flow by 50 percent. The money also decreased
Enron's debt by 40 percent, allowing it to avoid nasty credit downgrades.
Meanwhile, ahem, the banks made hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and
commissions."

Hard to tell which is the parody, isn't it?

[...] Speaking of edifying sights, how nice to see Larry Lindsey, President
Bush's chief economic adviser, on the Sunday chats assuring us that all is
well despite the Dow Jones. How can you have Larry Lindsay on and not
mention the relevant information that before he went to the White House, he
was a financial consultant and advisory board member for Enron? [...]

...continues at
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0731-02.htm



http://slate.msn.com/?id=2068652
"The first question to ask about these stories is whether Rumsfeld is
right: Are the leaks-and their publication by the Times and other
papers-endangering American lives? But beyond that issue, readers must be
wondering why these conflicting plans-which would appear to tip our hand to
the enemy-keep showing up in the damn newspaper. Do these stories simply
reflect the conflicting preferences of different military officials? Or is
the Pentagon using the Times to confuse the Iraqis about the impending
attack as part of an "information operation" (formerly "disinformation")
campaign? More sinisterly, is the Times partnering with the Pentagon to
bamboozle the Iraqis? [...] National security and military stories such as
the Iraq invasion pieces are give-and-take collaborations between the press
and the government. Very few national security stories have been published
over the government's objections in the last three decades, and if any of
them resulted in the death of a U.S. soldier, that would be news to me. "
[...]



http://www.whspliff.net/Edinburgh3.html
"IF you want to take the "high" road to Scotland, head for Edinburgh, where
there is growing pressure for the city to approve cannabis cafes in an
attempt to create an "Amsterdam of the north".  [...]  Amsterdam may be
seedy, but that city's tourism is booming. Most people who go there don't
necessarily visit cannabis cafes, but they love the flavour of that
freedom.  [...] "We don't sell stationery - We aim to make you stationary."


http://www.sabbatum.com/
"Sabbatum" is a tribute album like no other - 12 Black Sabbath classic
songs played by early music band Rondellus and sung in Latin language.