Ms. Olson worked as an executive at Enron during its rise and infamous collapse. She claims that she and many others, while not denying the wrongdoing of a few, tried to explain to both the House and the Senate what really caused Enron’s collapse. According to Olson, we would not have had to face the economic crisis we find ourselves in today had our lesislators in Washington listened. She asserts:

The only difference between Bear Stearns, Lehman and soon, AIG is that Enron had a first mover position. My guess is that the culture rewarded risky behavior that potentially lacked personal integrity by some who saw the warning signs but failed to say anything because of the money they were making.

Ms. Olson continued with a list of “lessons learned” from Enron that our Congressional delegates appear to have missed or overlooked (likely for the exact reasons stated in the quote above):

1. “Integrity in individuals is important”
2. “Personal gain drives personal behavior”
3. “Politics provides a dangerous element in business decisions”
4. “Bankruptcy is a lucrative business”
5. “More government rules in place doesn’t fix the problem”

(I will focus the remainder of my comments on the last point, but I encourage you to read the aticle for yourself.)

One thing is certain, neither the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) nor the auditing firms were able to detect or prevent the issues leading to the mortgage and now economic crisis, though they should have if SOX was ever really a valid and useful piece of legislation. Many have correctly stated SOX was mostly worthless, a statement now proved true. Further, I find it ironically amusing that those who so quickly condemned Enron, pressured Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into bad business decisions, and then denied the possibility of a pending mortgage crisis are 1) still in office, and 2) creating the legislation to “fix” the crisis.

We must be the stupidest generation in America to have let this happened.

Let’s look at what should have happened to “fix” our economic woes. First, SOX should have been repealed immediately. This would have freed trillions of business dollars almost overnight without costing the taxpayers anything. Second, Congress should have signed into law a bill to re-enact SOX section 302, which enforces legal liability of the CEO and CFO, and extended the bill to include not just the chief execs of companies in the market and with public debt, but also negligent, public officials.

Aside: Note that I said should, as obviously people like Barney Frank, et. al., would never have signed such legislation as they would have been tried and convicted on the spot, then carted off to their “white-collar resort” prison.

Third, Congress should have placed a very low ceiling on property taxes so as to relieve the additional burden on home owners. Who knows, with property taxes at all time highs, this alone might have solved the problem of home ownership. I have a neighbor who, though she fully owns her home, might have to move next year if the property taxes increase again as they have in the past. I find something fundamentally wrong with this situation. Congress then should have instructed state and local governments to increase sales taxes on non-essentials and luxury items, while continuing to enforce no sales tax on basic necessities.

Even taking all these steps is not enough to fend off a recession. However, recessions come every eight years, nothing ever stops them, and we are due. In light of this, I’m surprised the Fed hasn’t raised interest rates to encourage saving, paying off debt and investing in the market–all things we desparately need. The coming recession will likely end in another year or two, so readying for it and waiting it out will get us through, not government intervention. Honestly, who wants their help? Look at all the flubs they’ve made!

We need to begin electing people who know how to fix our numerous national problems, who work with one another and with us, not career politicians. The people of the nation “of the people, by the people, for the people” need to get out and run for office. We need to begin thinking again and holding ourselves and each other responsible and accountable. Otherwise, we will lose our freedom.