Subsidizing Enron

Over at Human Events, Timothy Carney argues that the U.S. government was an unindicted accomplice in the Enron fraud case. Here's one example:

The first specific charge in the federal indictment under which Skilling and Lay were convicted last month relates to the "Use of special purpose entities [SPEs]…to manipulate financial results." Specifically, the indictment discusses a bungled power-and-pipeline project in Cuiaba, Brazil -- a deal whereby Enron simultaneously hid large losses while enriching Fastow personally.

While the Cuiaba project was "straining to meet budget targets" in late 1999, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a federal subsidy agency, extended a $200-million subsidy credit to Enron to help it build a pipeline to the plant.

Did I just blog pieces from In These Times and Human Events back to back? I suppose I did.

Whole thing here.