Ultimately, who was responsible for the downfall of Enron?

Only a few years ago,

Enron was the nation's seventh-largest corporation,

valued at almost 70 billion dollars.

Pundits praised the company as a new business model.

This trading floor was manned by America's best and brightest,

charting the futures of energy and power.

And high above each with a private staircase,

Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling

had built their own plush staterooms.

They were known as the smartest guys in the room.

Captains of a ship too powerful to ever go down.

In the Titanic, the captain went down with the ship.

In Enron, it looks to me like the captain first gave himself

and some friends a bonus,

then lowered himself and the top folks down in the lifeboat

and then hollered up and said,

by the way, everything is going to be just fine.

Like Skilling,

Ken Lay said he hadn't done anything wrong.