Now, thanks to his mother-in-law, even the president is shocked -- shocked - - to discover what Enron employees told Congress a month ago, that "a lot of shareholders didn't know all the facts."

Personally, I prefer the description of the Enron debacle by William Greider, national affairs correspondent for the Nation and a 35-year veteran of economics reporting:

"Enron, accompanied by a supporting cast from banking, accounting and Washington politics, is a virtual pinata of corrupt practices and betrayed obligations to investors, taxpayers and voters."

Greider's essay, "Crime in the Suites" in the Feb. 4 issue of the Nation, is a must-read for anyone who seeks a solid, easy-to-comprehend primer on just how something as big and bad as Enron came to be. It also will provide some affirmation to folks who've grown ill from witnessing the obscene and immoral excesses of an unchecked, increasingly under-regulated, free-market economy.

For people like us, people who believe that capitalism is like fire -- a marvelous and useful force, as long as you keep it under tight supervision and control -- the terrible treats now tumbling from the Enron pinata confirm what we've said all along. As Greider puts it:

"The rot in America's financial system is structural and systemic. It consists of lying, cheating and stealing on a grand scale . . . Enron ought to be seen as the casebook for fundamental reform."

But, Lordy, what a task that reform will be. Where do you start? The rot has not simply been allowed to spread, it has been deliberately cultivated and encouraged to eat through walls and foundations in Washington and on Wall Street. As each new Enron revelation proves, the rot runs so deep and wide, it's hard to find anyone uncontaminated enough to whom the clean-up can be entrusted.

Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who now chairs Senate hearings on Enron?

Never mind that he's one of 71 U.S. senators who gladly gobbled up campaign contributions from Enron. As the New York Times reported last week, "At least twice in the last eight years (Lieberman) led efforts sought by the accounting industry to derail stricter accounting rules on stock options."

Oh, those accountants. Of all the erroneous notions to be squashed by falling debris from the Enron pinata, a trustworthy accounting industry is perhaps the flattest. Enron -- and Lincoln Savings and Loan, Global Crossings, Lucent, and Cendant Corp., et al., ad nauseam -- could not have pulled off such monster-truck-scale deceptions without major help from their accountant/auditors.

Thanks to the Enron scandal, we grunts outside of the Beltway and Big Business now know that, since 1990, accounting firms like Arthur Andersen poured more than $53 million into the campaigns of candidates for president and Congress. Nearly a quarter of that money materialized in 2000 alone; not one of the so-called Big Five firms missed making George W. Bush's Top 20 presidential campaign contributors' list.

How about the Securities and Exchange Commission? Can we turn to that august regulatory body in good faith for help with reform? Well, only if we're not bothered by the fact that the new SEC chairman, Harvey Pitt, practiced law in a firm whose clients include all of the Big Five and good old insider trading king, Ivan "Greed is good" Boesky.

And let's not even start on the SEC's role in carving up the Investment Company Act of 1940, especially for Enron, so that the company could run wild off-shore with some of the worst of its 881 "subsidiaries".

No, sir. When it comes to the disgusting -- and systemic -- contents of the Enron pinata, the energy company's once-proud slogan probably sums it up best: "Endless possibilities."

©2002 San Francisco Chronicle

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