The Next Enron Scandal

Isaiah J. Poole and Rick Perlstein

May 11, 2007

Isaiah J. Poole is executive editor of TomPaine.com. Rick Perlstein is senior fellow at the Institute for America's Future.

The Enron scandal is rearing its ugly head again, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has to decide with whom it will stand: Will it be with small investors who depend on the honest advice of financial advisors or with bankers who, thanks to a recent federal court decision, have a license to facilitate fraud?

That stunning Fifth Circuit ruling is before the Supreme Court, which has to decide whether it will review the case. How the SEC weighs in could influence the justices, who will have their own choice to make between a conservative ideology that brooks virtually no boundaries for rampant corporate greed and the values of basic farness, honesty and justice.