Death of a Salesman

The New York Times is reporting that Kenneth Lay has died of an apparent heart attack at 3:11AM today. It seems that we'll have to wait for more details to be forthcoming from their spokesperson:

A spokeswoman for the Lay family, Kelly L. Kimberly, confirmed reports of Mr. Lay's death but declined to discuss specifics. In a prepared statement, Ms. Kimberly said: "Ken Lay passed away early this morning in Aspen. The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate. And out of respect for the family, we will release further details at a later time."

I can respect that the family needs some time. No matter how many lives he ruined, he was still loved by his family and friends and people should be understanding about their mourning period.

But I have to say it is easier said than done. Even reading the Times article, I am reminded of why Ken Lay deserved to be imprisoned:

At the trial, Mr. Lay defended himself as prosecutors tried to embarrass him by pointing out that he spent $200,000 on a cruise with his wife months before the company collapsed. "We had realized the American dream, and were living a very expensive lifestyle," Mr. Lay said, adding it was "the type of lifestyle where it is difficult to turn off the spigot."

It's that kind of statement that makes it open season on Mr. Lay. At Fanatical Apathy, the tag line about his passing is Ken Lay, Laid Low.

But as the BBC notes, in a longer article eulogizing Mr. Lay (Kenneth Lay: A fallen hero):

Enron's belief in - and its ability to proselytise - the idea of prising open markets, and trading energy futures just like other commodities, caused The Economist to describe Enron as an "evangelical cult" with Mr Lay as the "messiah".

"We like to think of ourselves as the Microsoft of the energy world," Mr Lay has been quoted as saying.

And hence the title of this posting. Mr. Lay clearly was a man who believed in the free market and that de-regulation of the energy markets was fundamental to his companies success. In my humble opinion, it seemed that he believed so much in his own vision, that he forgot sell a real product and started selling Enron's success at manipulating those free markets. Unfortunately, when the time came to pay the piper, he discovered that Enron's reputation, as a product, could only be cashed in on at the value that he thought it was worth by breaking the law.

It is a sad day when a family loses a member. It was also a sad day when all of those family members that Enron employed lost their savings and retirement funds. In the end, Kenneth Lay's family will just join the members of a very large number of families in this country already paying the price for the hubris of Enron.