and they say savage-enron-board of directors. did anybody say, frank i have great respect for you, but upper on the board of enron. >> i had that experience. at the time i was in the process of launching a private equity fund to invest in infrastructure in africa. i put my own money into it. i had a team committed to me. i had talked to investors both in the united states and in the middle east. i was very confident that this was going to be launched. when this enron thing happened, it died up. all the investors went away. so what happened to me? to tell you the truth, while not being able to launch my africa fund was very, very painful to me -- >> this was what year? >> 2001-2002. i couldn't do that and i've had a long involve independent africa. but i think the problem was that people didn't know whether i had done anything wrong or not. there was a legal suit outstanding. so no lawyer would tell his fund to invest in another fund when there is a cloud hang everything on it. there was a cloud hanging over me, and that hurt me p

like i was about enron. >> neil: another thing if you'll en$., that's idea that everybody has to get on the same page, we don't speak out of turn. we all love each other at fox and never say a crossword about any of our colleagues. but there's an understanding you don't do that. in other words, you don't air your dirty laundry in public and that was the message at enron. that might have been the mess ramming right now on the administration on ben georgia si, that everyone had to be part of the constant revisions, the talking points, and everybody had to agree in this case this wasn't a terror threat, wasn't an al qaeda type thing, despite a warning. i'm going to give the benefit of the doubt they weren't starting out to be deliberately devious, they all wanted to be roughly on the same page. too early to say. we're not going to jump the gun and say this was al qaeda. i only relate it back to you, sharon to say, what is the line between trying to make sure everyone is speaking the same point versus lying about that point? >> well, i think some of

how enron's former leader could soon walk free. plus, why one film studio could be setting up for a rocky summer. first business starts now! you're watching first business: financial news, analysis, and today's investment ideas. good morning. it's thursday, may 9th. i'm angela miles. in today's first look: is the sky the limit? once again, the dow and s&p 500 soared to record highs. this is the 5th consecutive record close for the s&p. nasdaq put on another 16 points, while gold ran up $24 and oil rallied 94 cents. in earnings after hours, groupon topped targets, while tesla turned its first profit. shares zoomed 25% higher after the close. and brewing up a deal: starbucks and green mountain tell cnbc the competitors are making it possible for customers to use some starbucks single- serve packs in green mountain's keuring brewers. will it be another record day for the market? todd horwitz of average joe options joins us. good morning to you, todd, and what do you think will be the next big market movers? - i think what you are watc

and perhaps most importantly for victims of the enron collapse, some $40 million in restitution thatminal convictions would stand and get out of prison around 63 years old instead of 74 years old. no comment yet from the justice depart are you surprised? it also sort of gets him some of his life back. we will go back to sort of the history of all of this. a federal appeals court back in 2009 had ruled that the there has been a lot of lawyering and that means that it goes away. he gets some of his life back. >> the same judge who tried the case in houston now, he has been active active actively just a short time ago this afternoon so he will be on board. but, the victims will also have a chance to weigh in here. they already, as we said when we broke this, the story of the negotiations back in april, the victims were going to be given a chance to respond to the proposed agreement. now we have a chance to weigh in and potentially appear in court. jeff skilling may be back in front of the judge who sentenced him. his first public appearance since 2006. but one step closer now to freedom

. >>> former enron ceo and jailbird jeffrey skilling could get out a decade early. a federal judge has yet to approve the deal which would free up $40 million for victims of enron's collapse. >>> and a electric carmaker tesla had a profit for the first time ever with plans to deliver 21,000 cars this year. but it's still three times the number of lamborghinis that will be sold in 2013. fiat is dropping production to maintain exclusivity. >>> straight ahead, nbc's richard engel goes deep into syria to find out if the government used chemical weapons against its own people. that nbc exclusive next. >>> 40-year-old hawaiian surfer shane dorian has walked away with surfing's biggest accolades, with the ride of the year award at the global big weave award which awards the biggest surfers and wipeout. >>> now to the deadly civil war in syria which has claimed more than 70,000 lives. the stories of the atrocities there are tough to cover as richard engel knows first hand. he and his crew were kidnapped in december but thankfully made it out okay. they are back to investiga

>> enron was a fraud.estified with -- an behalf of the people of the united states against enron. i will tell you this, boeing should never be put in the same sentence as get boeing is the greatest manufacturers the world has. if their management is problem mat ec, everybodys is. they're the best in the industry. i think it's by the way the largest source of why the dow is going up, the secret ingredient to this amazing bull market, unlikely suspect, walk, by no longer being important! [ music playing ] >> stay with cramer! >>> coming up, money tree? the housing market's foundation is strengthening. that demand for lumber helped weyerhaeuser report its largest quarter since 2005. is it time to get a position on the stock? cramer battles it out with weyerhaeuser's ceo. . >>> given this market some incredible run, how many stocks have soared to new highs? who can you count on to keep roaring higher? how about long themes with tremendous staying power. themes with tremendous housing. it's apparent for the eye

enron's collapse led to financial turmoil for former employees & investors. the justice department says skilling's deal allows victims to collect more than $40 million in restitution. until now, the government has been unable to distribute that money due to the status of the case. we turned the microphone to you for reaction. "as someone who invested at that time, he should rot in jail. he took advantage of people and couldn't have cared less." "no, i don't think he should be released early. he ruined peoples' lives. he wants out? i don't think so." a federal judge will rule on whether to shorten skilling's sentence june 21st. a new study shows americans are making stunning sacrifices to pay off student loans, and senator elizabeth warren believes she has a solution. a new survey from the american institute for cpas finds 60% regret choosing student loans to finance their education. 41% delayed retirement savings, 29% delayed buying a house, and 15% put off marriage. this week, elizabeth warren proposed her first bill in the senate. it calls for students to b

why do we let wealthy white men like enron executive jeffrey skilling get off so easily in this country spike up and tony in just a moment also although the postal service one of the most successful government programs in history republicans want to bankrupt it i'll talk with congressman peter de fazio about his plan to save the u.s. postal service later on in tonight's episode and the story of amanda berry gina de souza and michelle knight has captivated the nation but their ordeal could have easily been prevented i'll tell you how incidents still take. you know this jeffrey skilling just got i got a get out of jail free card as part of a tentative deal will reach to the justice department this week the disgraced enron executive will have eleven years to get off his twenty year twenty four year sentence feels not completely free skilling still has to hand over forty million dollars in assets to victims of enron's collapse but he's still doing with forty million bucks but when you think about the magnitude of his crimes in the length of his initial sentence it's a pretty sweet deal alth

. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> jeffrey skilling, the disgraced former ceo of enron struck a deal with the justicethat could get him freed from federal prison in just four years. that is ten years earlier than the sentence hand down in the 2006 conviction for fraud, conspiracy and insider trading, crimes that contributed to the energy giant in 2001. a judge has to approve the agreement at a resentencing in june. before he gets that earlier release, scott cohn has been following this story for years. tell us how this story came about, scott. >> this was a classic negotiation. remember back in 2006 when this trial took place of enron's jeff skilling and the late ken lay, the wounds from the dot com bubble were still fresh, the judge in houston sentenced him to 28 years and four months in prison and the harsh sentence, one of the harshest for white-collar crime. a court ruled that that sentence was too harsh and he should get more like 15 years and the resentencing has been on hold because skilling had a number of appeals they had to work through including going to the u.s. supreme court which sent i

morgan stock will it go the way that of enron as i've been predicting for many years or will they just simply print another trillion dollars worth of funny money and try to paper over the whole thing here or the it's definitely the last scenario the will print you know all that a lot of money you know just to save the morgan. let's let's point out something else which is extremely interesting again in the biz is that you have a so i said previously bernie madoff them but you have also another one and ron you know this is you know quite interesting because they did it's kind of a new story you know it's a new eleventh of september preparing a g.p. morgan i hope i hope sincerely. but i am unfortunately i'm sure that they will let her down and the only banker who will come through her help will be anguished banker because the don't forget that also she's angry she's not american so that this is the reason they will need to one at one moment to truth somebody to the wolves go to the media they need to show that one point to sift to see and all this regulatory clowns as you call them. do so

car alarms and agent making ice and the second richest man in the house of representatives he hyped enron's takedown of california's electric systems to get out governor date gray davis spending over a million dollars of his own money on advertisements to destroy gray davis' governorship planning to run against davis in the recall election that he helped make happen he actually broke into public tears when he learned that enron's ken lay had secretly been working with arnold schwarzenegger to become governor and schwarzenegger then went ahead and filed his papers. but today the san diego republican was rushing out of his own dream to become governor it's mine site. it's. really. from opposing for a request to a rage in the people of new york to his successfully riding the coattails of enron to destroy governor gray davis terrible i say has had quite the ethically challenged career and life and yet despite all this and all the congressman's nakedly political actions our corporate media has never seriously called him out or exposed him. so i'm for the media to start telling the truth about th

him for a request to a rage in the people of new york to his successfully riding the coattails of enron to destroy governor gray davis terrible i say has had quite the ethically challenged career and life and yet despite all this and all the congressman's nakedly political actions our corporate media has never seriously called him out or exposed him. so i'm for the media to start telling the truth about the history corruption and rod naked political ambition of this generation's joe mccarthy congressman darrell wise. and that's the way it is to died monday may twentieth twenty thirteenth get a question or comment send us your video questions for our thursday your take my takes just grab your phone hop on your computer get record and e-mail your video question to your take my take g.-mail dot com. for more information on any of the stories we've covered visit our web sites of thom hartmann dot com free speech dot org dot com and if you missed any of the night's show you can now watch on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture also check out our two you tube channels there are links to

in the enron case and a lot of your bosses case they go from being hands-on and on top of every detailnorant of the details that come up. >> once you start lying or committing a fraud, have to continue lying for ever and ever. neil: do you think this gets bigger? apples and oranges, i grant you, but do you get a sense any one or combination of these gets bigger than we know? >> were the overzealous in terms of preventing tax-free status given what went on in 2011 or 12? was it somebody down at the lower end of the management spectrum exercising due diligence? it doesn't smell that way, but again we haven't had the report that is coming out this friday, we have not heard mr. miller's testimony, see how it shakes out. it is bother some to me the way it has come out. neil: it has a certain commonality. >> why didn't somebody say this is wrong, let's stop it. are they deliberately secretive in what they do and not have a culture of transparency? that is the problem i would ask and elected officials would have it on friday. it looks like he has known about it for some time. neil: he is betw

why do we let wealthy white men like enron executive jeffrey skilling get off so easily in this country was miked up and tony in just a moment also although the postal service is one of the most successful government programs in history republicans want to bankrupt it i'll talk with congressman peter de fazio about his plan to save the u.s. postal service later on in tonight's episode and the story of amanda berry gina de souza and michelle knight has captivated the nation but their ordeal could have easily been prevented i'll tell you how infantile take.

there may be outrage but this deal could also benefit enron victims. >> your right with that statementfor the deal that could cut as much as ten years of skilling's 24-year prison term, he agreed to waive his right to further appeals including pending bid for a new trial and he agreed that more than $40 million of forfeited assets should be distributed to financial victims of the collapse of the company. i guess some people out there feel it provides a certain amount of finality to victims and finality to the public. a long and painful process. you might remember whether it was originally back in 2006 the sentencing. he spent more than six years in custody for the bankruptcy and collapse of enron and you might also remember it was because the company had grossly overstated its earnings. therefore tens of thousands of employees and investors were financially hurt from that. >> meantime, mother's day is coming up this sunday. more moms are bringing home the bacon. >> a new survey finds that moms are quickly catching up to dads when it comes to being the bread winner. 34%, that's one-thir

just over the last thirteen years as a result of an stupid law passed by phil gramm and advocated by enronseven hundred trillion dollars is a disaster waiting to happen let's go to our first video question tonight from stephen just the co-chair of the colorado move to amend organization. if we're going to make the changes necessary to restore democracy in this country we have to amend the u.s. constitution so that it says two things clearly and unequivocally first that rights recognized under the constitution one to human beings only period no exceptions and second that money is not speech the only proposed constitutional amendment that says those two things is moved to a man's we the people amendment that people can find it w w w doubt we the people amendment doubt or. as much as i love bernie sanders his democracy is for people amendment is fatally flawed because it doesn't address ending constitutional rights at all it only attempts to overturn citizens united and again that's just not good enough i think it's time for us to start making a sharp distinction between move to a men's we th

should really scare the hell audio before phil gramm and his wife wendy his wife was on the board of enronken lay and ron was the you know the hottest thing going back in and nine hundred ninety nine in two thousand and before phil gramm introduced the commodities futures modernization act that allowed banks to invent out of nothing bats called derivatives and start marketing them the market into riveted this world wide was zero right now the biggest banks around the world are sitting on seven hundred trillion dollars worth of derivatives and if you think our seventeen trillion dollar debt or a sixteen trillion dollar g.d.p. or the sixty five trillion dollar international worldwide g.d.p. is a big deal just consider that our banking system just over the last thirteen years as a result of one stupid law passed more you know pushed through by phil gramm and you know advocated by enron seven hundred trillion dollars it is a disaster waiting to happen let's go to our first video question and from stephen just you know the co-chair of the colorado move to amend organization. if we're going to m

. >>> former enron ceo jeffrey skilling could get out a decade early.he judge has yet to announce the deal. >>> >>> new this morning, the number of homes being foreclosed on in april fell to a six-year low. >>> and electric carmaker tesla motored its way to a profit for the first time ever with plans to deliver 21,000 cars this year. that's not many, right? but it's still three times the number of lamborghinis that will be sold in 2010. fiat is dropping production below 7,000 to retain exclusivity. >>> take a look at this. the world's greatest surfers and biggest wipeouts honored at the global big wave awards. 40-year-old hawaiian surfer shane dorian walked away with one of surfing's biggest accolades, the ride of the year award. [ female announcer ] switch to swiffer 360 duster extender, and you'll dump your old duster. swiffer 360 duster extender cleans high and low, with thick all around fibers that attract and lock up to two times more dust than a feather duster. swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. which is why he's investing in his heart he

the tax system is a profit center and indeed enron called its tax department a profit center. >> jean, i have to say when i talk about taxes and budgets, jean is the one. we just chat about taxes and budgets all the time. apple's complex tax strategies really draw -- it is an example of what's wrong with the tax code. explain how u.s. multinationals take advantage of the loopholes in the system. >> one of the big things discussed on tuesday when apple was on the hill was and called a cost sharing agreement. u.s. multinationals choose to share things like the costs of research and development, whether they are offshore subsidiaries or in cases of ireland no tax countries. what the problem with that is tax experts say is that they give the offshore subsidiaries a sweetheart deal that they would not give an outside party, so if i am going to invite you in to get in on the ground floor of my next great product, i will make you pay for that. what happened in the case of apple is that they -- the offshore subsidiaries pay a little more than 50% of the costs and earned about 15 times the pro

and i'm forgetting i'm forgetting the piece of legislation but as a result of enron mark to market accounting was legislation that passed that seemed like the most practical thing in the world to do and yet that was a direct contributor to the collapse in two thousand and eight because of. because of securities having to be marked at five cents on the dollar because there was one trade at the end of december for hundreds of thousands of dollars in a multi-trillion dollar market for five cents on the dollar and now all assets have to be. have to be graded at five cents as opposed to a dollar and that was the that was the entire meltdown of two thousand and eight all banks were insolvent so but still though the cons of the monopolies not just with banks but i think with anything on the how do you prevent these from for me because it's not just the inevitability of having no money and now you're back to glass steagall in the fact that yes on the surface that that does make sense that we should separate investment banking from banking ok well let's talk about what point in the free market is over

but as a result of enron mark to market accounting was legislation that passed that seemed like the most practical thing in the world to do and yet that was a direct contributor to the collapse in two thousand and eight because of because of securities having to be marked at five cents on the dollar because there was one trade at the end of december for hundreds of thousands of dollars in a multi-trillion dollar market for five cents on the dollar and now all assets have to be. have to be graded at five cents as opposed to a dollar and that was the that was the entire meltdown of two thousand and eight all banks were insolvent so but still though the cons of the monopolies not just with banks but i think with anything on the how do you prevent these from for me because it's not just the inevitability of having no money and now you're back to glass steagall in the fact that yes on the surface that that does make sense that we should separate investment banking from banking ok well let's talk about what point in the free market is oversight needed because when you have a lack of that you s

but as a result of enron mark to market accounting was legislation that passed that seemed like the most practical thing in the world to do and yet that was a direct contributor to the collapse in two thousand and eight because of. because of securities having to be marked at five cents on the dollar because there was one trade at the end of december for hundreds of thousands of dollars in a multi-trillion dollar market for five cents on the dollar and now all assets have to be. have to be graded at five cents as opposed to a dollar and that was the that was the entire meltdown of two thousand and eight all banks were insolvent but still though the concept of monopolies not. with banks but i think with anything on the how do you prevent these from for me because it's not just the inevitability of having no money and now you're back to glass steagall in the fact that yes on the surface that that does make sense that we should separate investment banking from banking ok well let's talk about what point in the free market is oversight needed because when you have a lack of it you see such t

jeff skilling was not the chairman of enron. >> i don't mean to jump in on you.nk you very much for your comments. we do have breaking news now. what are you hearing? >> notified investors that it is extending the investors who pulled their money can get all of their money invested back by the end of the year. urging investors to try to stick with them even for one more quarter. potentially against steve cohen. no charges against steve. >> gangsters, red necks and cheer leaders. >> later on, the gold rush is over. market watcher says thathe bubble has burst but there is a new one forming. we will talk about both coming up. les schwab, we've committed to setting the bar high by going low. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 like offering schwab etfs tdd# 1-800-345-2550 with the lowest operating expenses tdd# 1-800-345-2550 in their respective lipper categories -- tdd# 1-800-345-2550 lower than ishares tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and vanguard. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and with all our etfs commission-free tdd# 1-800-345-2550 when traded online in a schwab account, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 it leaves

left in the world the other ones have already been shut down due to fraud like out there andersen and enron and there's also a paul krugman said is that all of these policies are working because the corporate profits are up according to the accountants every single one of the four biggest accounts are involved in a major scandal just like the major banks are involved in major scandal the fund managers and people like warren buffet others involved in insider trading and market manipulation so you can't really say that look at the profit at the p. e. ratio if you look at the either earnings of the ratio it's pulled out of that from a major accountant is involved in a major scandal so again that the consumer the population's complicity in these the top will always do this always scam adam smith said this but we act like innocent people down below in the factory farm here's the neat two thousand and eight two thousand and thirteen they're celebrating oben omics as you see huge boom and the stock market let's cut to this tweet from dominic frisby and it shows you the u.s. federal reserve gold ho

former enron chief executive cut a deal with the justice department to have the prison sentence reduced "wall street journal," he could have the 24-year term reduced to just a 14-year sentence. as part of the deal, he gives up the right to future appeals. convicted in 2006 of fraud and insider trading, he's currently in prison for the role in the collapse of the energy giant. meanwhile, americans spend roughly $10 billion on the favorite energy drinks last year. according to beverage die jest, a 12% jump from 2011. monster dominated with 38.6% of the market share. the u.n. environmental agency forecasts the global market for green product and services to turn into a trillion dollar business. a $2 #.2 trillion business by 2020 to be exact. now we continue our "countdown to the closing bell" with liz claman. ♪ liz: welcome to jo. all right, jo, great to have you on board. home improvement stores getting a boost today. nicole? >> on yet another record-sets day here on wall street, liz. names in the home improvement realm, looking first at home depot, up a half of 1%. this is hot and has be