Next, we turn to a reading of the chronological events. I have put in Scene and Act labels, and located where I think particular plots by insiders and outsiders are doing their emplotment (grasping together characters, events, themes, & ideological frames). 

THE PRE-ENRON CHRONOLOGY: Birth of the 7th Sister

The play opens in a garden outside the house of John D. Rockefeller, in Cleveland Ohio. He is organizing the Standard Oil Company. It is Jun 1870.  When you emplot the chronology using Plot 7. Its a remake of the Seven Sisters from 1911 (see Table 2 above), keep digging into history to see how the Seven Sisters formed when in 1911, the Supreme Court upheld decisions of many lower courts to break up the monopoly of Standard Oil. The breakup spawned the Seven Sisters. The Seven Sisters of Oil are Exxon, Mobil, Shell, British Petroleum, Gulf, Texaco, & Chevron).  With the merger of Exxon and Mobil, there was on less sister. I think Enron became the Seventh Sister, the new Energy Empress. See history of Oil and the Seven Sisters.

1978 - Deregulation of the natural gas market with the Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA) of 1978. “Shortages of natural gas during the 1970s led many gas pipeline companies to enter into long-term take- or-pay contracts that obligated them to purchase a specific quantity of gas at a fixed price, if the amount of gas purchased fell below the minimum set in the contract, they were subject to deficiency payments. Simultaneously the pipeline companies resold the gas to local distribution companies (LDC) at equivalent prices with "minimum bill" provisions that mirrored the take-or-pay contracts. However, de- regulation and limitations on industrial gas consumption imposed by the NGPA of 1978 quickly reversed the supply short- age and gas and gas prices fell dramatically.”

1981 - Newly elected President Ronald Reagan imposes policy prescriptions as condition of support for World Bank, which includes privatization, deregulation of oil, gas and power markets to increase US access to non-OPEC sources of oil, and increase developing country debt service payments.

1984 - the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 380 which declared the minimum bill contracts between pipelines and LDCs invalid.  

ENRON METATHEATRE: CHRONOLOGY ORDERED INTO A PLAY

ACT I: THERE WAS ALWAYS ENRON SCANDAL

SCENE I. - The play opens in an Office in Houston.

1984 – Kenneth Lay left Houston Natural Gas as CEO and chairman.  Arthur Andersen, says they warned Lay in 1984 that the oil trading (see Valhalla Rogues below) needed more oversight. 

1985 - HNG/InterNorth Inc. was created out of the merger of natural gas pipeline companies Houston Natural Gas and Nebraska-based InterNorth. The two corporations are evidently unaware that they have a third entity, the Valhalla Rogue Traders, who they do not discover until 1987 (see Jan 23 1987).

1986 Kenneth Lay is appointed chairman and chief executive

Mar 6, 1986, Kenneth Lay gathered his board of directors around him to resolve a nagging question. Lay was running a company called HNG/InterNorth Inc. The company was in the gas business, and pipelines, and was the result of the recent merger of Houston Natural Gas of Houston and the far larger InterNorth of Omaha. His first job, years before, had been at Exxon. Exxon sounded jazzy. Lay wanted something like that. The result was ENRON. A PR firm suggested "enteron," which  by definition, is the alimentary canal of the fetus, the name suggested more than "change." Shareholders were displeased with the digestive and fecal undertones. In its place, endorsed at that March board meeting, a moniker was adopted that has no meaning at all but that has made Lay and his company very famous - Enron.

SCENE II. - A Bank in New York.

Enter David Woytek & Arthur Andersen

Jan 23 1987 FIRST WHISTLE BLOWER - a security officer at Apple Bank in New York called in the Enron’s VP of auditing, David Woytek, that some very strange transactions were being made by Borget and Mastroeni through the Enron Oil Company (located in Valhalla, N.Y.). Arthur Andersen is hired by Andersen to investigate. 

Enter Audit Team

April 1987 that the audit team presented their findings to Enron’s board, and recommended that Borget and Mastroeni be fired. However, Ken Lay ordered that the two men be retained. They had made $130 million in oil trades for Enron, and through the Channel Islands off-shore money laundering, had saved Enron from paying U.S. taxes. Enron desperately needed money. 

Enter SEC

October 1987, the S.E.C. had begun investigating the two top executives.

SCENE III. - An Office in Enron Headquarters.

Enter Lay, Jacobs, Leucadia and Michael Miliken

Oct 21,1986, Lay found himself fending off a greenmail attack led by corporate raider Irwin Jacobs. Enron paid a $13 million (U.S.) premium above stock price to make Jacobs go away. Mr. Jacobs's 5.1 million Enron shares and Leucadia's 2.3 million shares would eventually be purchased from Enron by a new employee stock ownership plan. Together, the two owned 16.4 percent of Enron's stock, with Mr. Jacobs the larger shareholder at 11.4 percent. Both Mr. Jacobs, who has held a substantial stake in the company since 1985, and Leucadia, which became a shareholder in the middle of this year, will get $47 a share for their holdings. The deal was arranged by Miliken at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Enron did $3 billion in business with Drexel Burnham Lambert in the late 1980s, issuing $179.5 million in debt. The SEC was investigating Enron, which is when CEO Lay finally fired Borget and Mastroeni. See Boje 2002a for analysis of how this megaspectacle is recurrent in the 2001 Enron megaspectacle total collapse. 

SCENE IV. - Courtroom in New York

Enter Judge, Lou Borget, & Mr. Mastroeni 

Oct 22 1987, Enron finally disclosed publicly (just ahead of the SEC) that a "renegade crude oil trader" had been running two sets of trading books, and filing fake trading reports. The "trader" was Lou Borget, president of Enron Oil Corp., an Enron subsidiary. The losses were huge - Enron announced it would be taking an after-tax hit of $85 million in the third quarter of the year. He went to jail for a year and a day.  Enron was rocked by the disclosure that rogue traders at its Enron Oil Co. had left the company holding the bag for about $ 1 billion in trading liabilities. Before disclosing it to the market, the company worked the trading loss down to about $ 142 million. The losses led Enron's management to discontinue its speculative oil trading operations. Enron was rocked by the disclosure that rogue traders at its Enron Oil Co. had left the company holding the bag for about $ 1 billion in trading liabilities. Before disclosing it to the market, the  company worked the trading loss down to about $ 142 million. Unfortunately most of Wall Street did not treat the Valhalla Rogue Trade scandal with any serious reporting coverage, since the entire stock market was in a severe crash dive. Timing is everything. 

SCENE V. - In front of Enron Headquarters - 

Enter Lay and 1,700 Enron employees

1987 "... Kenneth Lay, chairman and chief executive of Enron Corp., gathered his 1,700 employees together at the company’s downtown Houston headquarters and made them a promise: It won’t happen again” (Steffy & Levy, 2002: 30). Note: This Metatheatre performance recurs again, following Skillings' August 2001 resignation. 

SCENE VI. - Bush Campaign Headquarters, Washington D.C.

Enter George Bush, Ken Lay

1988 - Presidential race, Lay was big for George Bush. The first one. Just as he would later be a significant backer for the littler Bush, raising more than $100,000 personally for the Bush presidential campaign, and through Enron, which made more than $700,000 in direct political contributions.

ACT II: ENRON DIFFUSES ITS NATIONAL AND GLOBAL POWER

SCENE I. - Before the U.S. District Court in New York. 

1990 former Enron employees Borget and Mastroeni settled their lawsuit, and pleaded guilty of defrauding Enron. “Enron charged in a March 26 1990 lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York State, "there was no such person (as M. Yass) and these funds had been diverted to Mastroeni's own personal use and benefit" (UPI, March 21, 2002). 

1990 Enron's Mission: To become the premier natural gas pipeline in North America

SCENE II. - Enron Headquarters

Lay  re-assembles his Cast of Characters for Enron's 1990 Mission:  To become the world’s first natural gas major.

Enter Skilling, Baxter, Fastow, Mark, & Lay

June 29, 1990 – Jeffrey Skilling hired at Enron from the consulting group McKinsey & Co. where he had been a senior partner. For the previous five years Skilling had worked on the Enron file. For the previous five years Skilling had worked as Enron consultant. Skilling becomes chairman of Enron Gas Services. 

1991 – J. Clifford Baxter, Columbia MBA (top of the class of '87), then aged 32, joined a small energy company called Enron. 

1991 – Andrew Fastow entered the company from Continental Bank to manage Enron Finance Corp. He would eventually become Enron's chief financial officer.

1991- Rebecca Mark, hired in 1991 as CEO of Enron Development Corporation, ‘Mark the Shark’ would become the most powerful woman in America by 1998.  Rebecca Mark, known as Mark the Shark and Skilling the Vader would engage in a 10-year Metatheatre rivalry that some say led to the ruination of Enron by 2000. For example, Rebecca Mark’s globetrotting visits on the Enron jet, became a Metatheatre road show complete with an entourage of WB, WFO, IMF, CIA agents mixed along with Mark’s hair dresser, make up artist, and a flock of assistants. Skilling had his own Metatheatre, with (Macho) Mighty Man (storm trooper) expeditions as rewards for performance, and rank and yank dismissal for the lowest 15% of the troops. 

SCENE III. - Houston Republican National Convention office.

See Plot 5. It was all three Presidents (Bush Sr., Clinton, & Bush Jr.).

Enter Lay, RNC Chair

1992, Kenneth Lay was chairman of the host committee for the Republican National Convention in Houston.

SCENE IV. - India at Dabhol power lant

Enter construction crew, villages, and Rebecca Mark

1992 - Enron’s 2,184-megawatt Dabhol power plant since 1992 has been resisted. "Free us from Enron" reads one report (Dugger, 2001: 1). Said to be the largest the largest gas-fired plant in the world has produced many anti-Enron crusaders. The Dabhol plant produced electricity that cost three times as much as competitor’s prices, and six times more than the coal-fired plant it replaced.

1996 - Enron had $19 billion worth of power plants in over two-dozen countries.

SCENE IX. - Enron Headquarter building, Houston

Enter Lay; Exit Enron Employees

Feb 4 1996 Earliest ‘New Economy’ reference to Enron by the media focused on its strategy of downsizing and outsourcing employees. Enron would become the role model of the New Economy corporation for three Presidents. Ken Lay’s deregulation rhetoric asserts, “I have a strong belief in markets. In fact, I think that an imperfect market is preferable to a perfect regulator."

ACT III: ENRON INTEGRATES ITS GLOBAL SPECTACLE

SCENE I. - Philadelphia - Plane is Circling Peco Tower

1997 The Enron partnership rhythms are on the move, in a self-organizing complexity since 1997 Enron acquires electric utility holding company Portland General Corp. in a $2.1 billion stock swap. In 1997, Mr Skilling got up at 4.30am and by 9am had done nine radio interviews. By noon, Enron had an airplane circling Peco's HQ in Philadelphia with a banner saying: "Enron doubles Peco's rate cuts" (Durgin & Skinner, June 26 2000).when Peco Energy, a large gas utility in Pennsylvania, was negotiating with state regulators over how it should be compensated for past investments, it offered to cut rates by 10 per cent. Enron saw a chance to enter the market and launched a lobbying and public-relations effort to promote its offer of a 20 per cent discount..

SCENE II. - Veldur, a fishing village in India

Enter Enron security, police, & 3 women from village

Jun 3, 1997, police forcibly entered the home of several women in Veldur, a fishing village in western state of Maharashtra, India dragged the women into waiting police vans, beating them with sticks. The only "crime" committed by these women was to lead a peaceful protest against a massive new natural gas plant being built for a Houston-based company named Enron” - Amnesty International 1997. See e.g. 1

SCENE III. Back to the UK, a gala event at Stakis Hotel in Blackpool

Enter Blair ministry, Labor Party, Mick Hucknall, Eddie Izzard & Jeremy Irons

1998 - The Cash for Access Megaspectacle Scandal - Enron buys Britain’s Wessex Water for $2.2 billion. And  “three weeks after the 1998 Labour party conference… the government decided not to refer the company's pounds 1.5bn takeover of Wessex Water to the Monopolies Commission - thus giving the American giant a monopoly of water supplies in much of south-west England” (Wheen, 2001: 5)This is the result of Metatheatre and well managed Megaspectacle. In 1998 there was an Enron mini-scandal in the UK (a precursor to the megaspectacle # H below). Enron paid 15,000 pounds to sponsor a pre-dinner drinks reception. Buchanan (1998: 16) commented about the event in ways the U.S. press was not reporting until after the spectacular collapse. In the UK, Lay held gala dinners for Blair ministry and Labor Party, such as the one at Stakis Hotel in Blackpool. This is now known as the Enron cash-for-access scandal. “Among the invited guests mixing with Ministers were a clutch of celebrities including singer Mick Hucknall, comedian Eddie Izzard and actor Jeremy Irons, there to sprinkle the event with a touch of showbiz glamour” (Barnett, Ahmed, & Morgan, 2002).

SCENE IV. - Enron HQ, Board Room

Enter Enron Board members, Jeff Skilling & Rebecca (Va Voom) Carter

1998 - Jeffrey Skilling got permission from the Enron Board of Directors in 1998 to date an Enron secretary, Rebecca Carter, whom insiders called “Va Voom” behind her back. Secretaries who dated Enron executives were known as "French Lieutenants' Women." Carter was quickly promoted to executive secretary to Enron’s board of directors; her salary was raised to $600,000. 

SCENE V. - Human Rights Watch HQ

Enter HRW staff members

1999, Human Rights Watch charged in a 166-page report, "The Enron Corporation: Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Violations," that Enron subsidiaries paid local law enforcement to suppress opposition to its power plant south of Bombay.

SCENE VI. - Four Seasons Hotel in London

Enter David Duncan

Feb 1999 - at a meeting of the Enron board of directors' audit committee in the Four Seasons Hotel in London, David Duncan gave a detailed presentation on Enron's accounting, saying it was "high risk" in several categories with a high probability it could be questioned.

August 1999 Enron withdraws from oil and natural gas production with divestment of its remaining stake in subsidiary Enron Oil & Gas Co. which is renamed EOG Resources.

ACT IV: ENRON USES THEATRE TO MASQUERADE ITS RAPTOR NETWORK TO THE ANALYSTS

See Plot 10. It was the greed and hubris of everyone.

SCENE I. - Enron HQ, Fastow's Office

Enter Fastow, Kopper, Dodson, Skilling & Lay

August 1999, Enron filed a public report on its financial results, disclosing that a senior executive was managing a partnership, LJM Cayman LP. The item, about 200 words under the heading "Related Party Transactions," said Enron had engaged in a series of complicated deals with LJM, including the transfer of 3.4 million shares of stock, then worth about $100 million. There is an earlier secret partnership than these called Chewco. Chewco was a confidential partnership Fastow’s team had concocted to keep more than $600 million in debt off Enron’s books, keeping it hidden from analysts, average investors, and pesky regulators. Chewco - Fastow assigned his top deputy Michael J. Kopper to own and manage it and Kopper’s domestic partner William Dodson (a Continental Airlines employee). Kopper and Dodson put in $125,000 of their cash, borrowed $11 million more from Barclays Bank.   One can assume that Enron's facade is being propped up by these off-the-balance-sheet partnership. Later both Lay and Skilling will distance themselves from all knowledge of them, leaving Fastow holding the bag/blame. 

Exit Skilling & Lay; Enter Vince Kaminski, Jeffrey McMahon

SCENE II. - Switch from PaineWebber to Merrill Lynch offices

Enter Paine Webber broker, Enter Merrill Lynch analyst John Olson

SCENE III. - Enron HQ, the 6th Floor, where a Fake Trading Set is Set up

Enter 75 Enron secretaries pretending to be traders; After a time enter 20 Wall Street Analysts who are spectators; Enter Skilling and Lay

FAKE TRADING FLOOR (Metatheatre) - Annually, for next four years, Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay played their starring role in the Enron Dramatis Personae, on a Hollywood-style fake stage on Enron's 6th floor, to a target audience of invited Wall Street analysts, who can not tell real from fake (See Boje, 2002b LJM paper).

October 1999 Enron announces launch of Enron Online, its Internet-based system for wholesale energy trading.

1999 Enron Broadband Services introduces the Enron Intelligent Network (EIN), a new Internet application delivery platform. Enron Investment Partners is created to manage private equity funds targeting women and minority owned businesses in Houston and around the U.S. Enron and the Houston Astros announce the name of Houston's new ballpark, "Enron Field," and a 30-year facilities management contract with EES. The 826 MW Phase I of the Dabhol Power Project begins commercial operation, and financing for the 1,624 MW Phase II and India's first LNG receiving facility is completed. EES transacts its first billion-dollar deal with Suiza Foods.

SCENE IV. Fastow's Office at Enron

Enter Vince Kaminski

Jun 1999 - Vince Kaminski, head of Enron Research, says he warned Enron upper executives that the LJM partnerships were a bad financial risk. 

Jan 2000 Enron outlines ambitious plans to build a high-speed broadband telecommunications network and trade network capacity, or bandwidth, in the same way it trades electricity, or natural gas

Exit Vince and Fastow; Enter McMahon and Skilling

Mar 2000 Treasurer Jeffrey McMahon approached Jeffrey K. Skilling with "serious concerns about Enron's dealings with the LJM partnerships," the Powers report said, citing an account from McMahon (report released Feb. 2002). Kristina Mordaunt (Enron’s in-house attorney), was one of the investors in an LJM partnership. 

Exit Skilling * McMahon; Enter Kopper, Mordaunt, Ben Glisan

            Also in March 2000, Kopper had invited Mordaunt to join in a confidential and secret investment deal, called Southampton Place, that would take place when the LJM1 partnership was terminated. Southhampton bought out the interests of one of LJM1's principal investors, a British bank. Ben Glisan (Enron's Treasurer) and Kristina Mordaunt (in-house attorney) had invested $ 5,800 apiece, and would net one million each. (See Boje, 2002b LJM paper).

SCENE V. Enron HQ

Enter Skilling

Apr 14, 2000 Internet bubble popped on Friday, April 14, 2000, 88 years to the day after the Titanic disaster and when a decline in technology stocks drove the Dow Jones industrial average down 617.78 points, its most precipitous plunge ever. The point of the analysis I am doing is to show just how long Enron was able so sustain the illusion and masquerade through Metatheatre that for Enron the bubble had not burst.

Enter Fastow

May 2000, for instance, it said Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow was manager of a key partnership and would be compensated for his role.

Jun 1 2000 Enron stock price is $71.12 a share. 

SCENE VI. - Lay's Office at Enron

Enter Lay, Skilling & Mark

Aug 23 2000 Enron’s stock hits an all-time high of $90.56 (resulting in a price/earnings multiple of 60 times). This is also when Rebecca Mark is force out of Enron and sells her shares at the peak of Enron's stock price. Mark realized $79.5 million from sale of Enron stock.

Exit Mark; Exit Gas Bank

Sept 2000, Enron dissolved, with no fanfare, a subsidiary called the Gas Bank that it had created by Jeffrey Skilling in 1989. Gerald Bennett says the Gas Bank was his idea, but it was Skilling who got the credit. Gas Bank morphs into Enron's trading floors. 

ACT V: ENRON BASKS IN BONFIRE OF ITS VANITIES

SCENE I. - Fortune Magazine Office in NY

Oct 4 2000 - Enron Press Release date - "Fortune magazine has named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for five consecutive years, the top company for "Quality of Management" and the second best company for "Employee Talent." In addition, Enron ranks in the top quarter of Fortune's "Best 100 Companies to Work For in America." Enron's Internet address is www.enron.com. The stock is traded under the ticker symbol ENE." --  from an Enron press release, 4 October 2000

Nov 2000 - Enron's quarterly report disclosed that it had engaged in an array of transactions with the partnerships. Total value:  $1.2 billion. The disclosure came in about a full page of text. 

SCENE II. - Enron HQ

Enter Lay, Bush, Members of WB, IMF and WTO

Late 2000 (Summary) wealthy Enron insiders systematically sold $1.1 billion worth of shares, but when rumors began circulating that the company was in freefall, executives responded by slapping no-sell restrictions on thousands of employees ( See Oct 29 2001) who wanted to unload their shares. Given Lay's close ties with the Whitehouse (5 former Enron executives are members of the Bush administration) and the Bush family (e.g. Bush Jr. sons were doing Enron deals at end of Gulf War) it is highly unlikely that any fraud charges will ever be brought against him. In addition, 21 U.S. government agencies, multilateral development banks, and other national governments gave Enron (and Mark) some very deep pockets. Enron and a number of its executives, including Lay, had contributed more money to Bush over his political career than anyone else, an amount exceeding $550,000. $7.219 billion financing toward 38 projects in 29 countries facilitated their global reach. Enron’s ties to the World Bank from 1992 to 2001 provided $761 million (tax payer dollars) in Enron support and political pressure for countries to get with Enron programs, and loss aid. Together with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank pressured the world’s government to pursue deregulation and privatization of the power and energy sectors of the global economy.  (See Reports for SEEN documentation of U.S. agencies, WTO, WB, and IMF financing of Enron projects around the world). See Boje 2002a for an analysis

Dec 2000 At the close of 2000, Enron recorded revenues of $100 billion; net income was $1.3 billion, and is paying no taxes (but relying on U.S. corporate welfare system to finance its global projects). 

Jan 2001 Enron had a market value of more than $77 billion. Stock price was $82 per share.

SCENE III. - Fastow's Office

Enter Fastow, Kopper, Dodson

Early 2001 - Enron closed down the Chewco partnership in early 2001, and paid Kopper and Dodson $10.5 million.

SCENE IV. - Bush HQ in Washington D.C.

Enter Bush, Lay

Jan. 20, 2001  George W. Bush is sworn in as president. Enron and Kenneth L. Lay, Enron's chief executive, each contribute $100,000 to help pay for the inaugural events.  

SCENE V. - Port Orford, Oregon

Enter Dan Boje; By phone David Boje

Plot 9. It was the Business College, they taught the gentlemen crooks everything they needed to de-fraud (that is what my Dad thought).

            Daniel Q. Boje called his son to say, “David [Boje], I want you to research connections between the Whitehouse and oil; I don’t like what President Bush is doing to the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.” He also wanted me to look into Vice President Cheney's oil service company (largest in the world) interests in the ANWR (See Boje, 2002a for documentation). Summary points:

            Enron played both sides during the election, giving 45% of its soft money to Gore’s Democratic presidential campaign and 55% to the Bush campaign. 30% of Enron PAC money went to Democratic campaigns, and the balance to Republican. Enron added $620,000 from company funds and Enron gave $520,000 to the Gore campaign. No fewer than 71 senators and 188 congressmen have been on the Enron gravy train (Rich, 2002).  

ACT VII: LAY'S THEATRE PERFORMANCES NO LONGER BRINGS APPLAUSE

SCENE I. - Enron HQ - 6th Floor

Enter Lay and hundreds of Enron employees

Sept. 26, 2001, Enron CEO Kenneth Lay still urged employees to buy more shares in the Houston energy firm.  "The third quarter is looking great," Lay said.

Oct 2, 2001 Lay e-mailed survey results to them, one of whom gave The Times a copy.  More than 1 out of 3 said they weren't committed to staying at Enron. Other signs of trouble: 42% said the company was more "self-serving" than it had been a year earlier, while 39% said it had grown more "arrogant." And 37% said the company was less "trustworthy" (Streitfeld & Romney, 2002).

SCENE II. - Ritz-Carlton at Pentagon City 

Enter Lay, Lots of Washington Staff

Oct 4, 2001 “Kenneth L. Lay was on stage, one of the nation's most admired business executives presiding over an Enron Corp. energy summit at the Ritz-Carlton at Pentagon City. 

Meanwhile back in Houston, Glisan's office

            Back in Houston, Lay's treasurer, Ben F. Glisan, and another executive worked the phones, quietly breaking bad news to analysts for the nation's Big Three corporate credit-rating agencies: Enron was about to report significant losses for the third quarter See METATHEATRE of LJM Boje, 2002a LJM paper).

SCENE III. - Arthur Andersen in Houston

Oct 12 2001, Enron crafted a script of its soon to be announced down-writing to partners at Arthur Anderson, who say they “strongly objected to the ‘non-recurring’ phrasing as misleading” (Witt & Behr, 2002: A01; See  Boje, 2002a LJM paper).

SCENE IV. - Enron HQ - Lay's Office

Oct. 16, 2001 Tuesday - Enron reports its first quarterly loss in over four years after taking charges of $1 billion on poorly performing businesses. Enron also discloses a $1.2 billion charge against shareholders’ equity relating to dealings with partnerships run by chief financial officer Andrew Fastow. Then Internet bubble had burst.

Enter WSJ Paper read by Enron Manager

Oct 17 2001, Wednesday morning,  the WSJ (Emshwiller, 2001: 1) carried a front-page story: “Enron Corp reports third-quarter net loss of $618 million after $1.01 billion in charges that reflect risks it has taken in transforming itself from pipeline company into diversified trading company; charges include $35 million related to limited partnerships, LJM Cayman LP and LJM2 Co-Investment LP, run by chief financial officer Andrew S Fastow that raises conflict-of-interest questions” (First of three WSJ articles). Enron, then discloses a $1.2 billion charge against shareholders’ equity relating to dealings with partnerships run by chief financial officer Andrew Fastow. The Internet bubble had really burst, and the cover was being blown. 

Enter by Fax, request from the SEC

            By end of day, October 17 2001,  the SEC requested by fax, more information concerning Fastow and the LJM partnerships. 

Meanwhile on a Stage in Boston Four Seasons Hotel; Enter Lay

            Lay traveled on the 17th to Boston to performed his Metatheatre before 40 investment-fund managers and securities analysts, over lunch on the center stage of the Four Seasons Hotel. In response to questions, Lay attacked the critical press coverage, calling it an irresponsible wild goose chase, and defended Fastow. 

Meanwhile back in Houston; SEC phones Enron

Oct 18 2001 Thursday -  SEC phoned Enron for details about Fastow and LJM Cayman and LJM2 Co-Investment partnerships.

Oct 19 2001 Friday -  Enron shares ended the day at $ 26.05.  

SCENE V. - Dogwood room of Hyatt in Houston

Enter 200 Top Managers at Enron; Enter Lay

Oct. 22, 2001 Monday - At 8:30 A.M.  (October 22) Lay was performing his theatre with 200 of Enron’s top-tier managers, in the Dogwood room on the 3^rd floor of Houston’s downtown Hyatt. Lay did not know that rumors about the SEC had leaked in the financial wire services. The rumors circulated that SEC was looking into transactions between Enron and the Fastow partnerships. The Metatheatre facade was collapsing quickly; Enron had by this time wiped out $60 billion in shareholder value. At Lay's performance, handheld BlackBerry messaging devices are displaying the wire service rumors to audience members (For Story, see  Boje, 2002a LJM paper).

SCENE VI. - Lay's Conference, 50th Floor of Enron HQ

Enter Enron PR team, Lay, Fastow, Astin (lawyer from Vinson & Elkins)

DARK TUESDAY - October 23 2001. Tuesday - Lay is huddled with a small group of advisors in a conference room adjoining his 50^th-floor office suite. They are rehearsing “a carefully worded script” prepared by Enron’s publicists and several executives. The script is for  a 8:30 AM live webcast chat with security analysts in an effort to quench the media firestorm about Fastow’s role in LJM partnerships. "Ronald T. Astin, a lawyer with Enron's outside law firm, Vinson & Elkins LLP, was asked to help fix the metascript. He rewrote it to say that it was Fastow who presented the LJM proposal to the board" (Witt & Behr, 2002: A01, bold is mine). Key Points. 

SCENE VII. - Hyatt Ballroom in Houston