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Profits are the unpaid wages of the working class. Karl Marx
The only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit. James Murdoch, McTaggart lecture, Sky 2009
The establishment in Britain is certainly against the arts and against education. If something doesn’t make a profit, it’s invalid, and art doesn’t make a profit in that sense. Peter Maxwell Davies
Who was responsible for the downfall of Enron? Only a few years ago Enron was the nation’s seventh largest corporation. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, written McLean & Elkind & Gibney, 2005
Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling had built their own plush state rooms. They were known as the smartest guys in the room. Captains of a ship too powerful to go down. ibid.
News of shredding at Enron raised more questions. ibid.
20,000 employees had lost their jobs. ibid.
In Washington, Lay became part of a new crusade to liberate businessmen from the rules and regulations of government. ibid.
George Bush senior helped secure billions in government subsidies for Enron International. ibid.
In 1987 two oil traders made bets for Enron on whether the price of oil would rise or fall ... Enron Oil always seemed to win. ibid.
At the board meeting the auditors told Lay that [Louis] Borget and his traders were manipulating earnings, destroying daily trading records and probably gambling way beyond their limits. ibid.
Lay encouraged his traders to gamble more. ibid.
Enron would become a kind of stock market for natural gas ... Transform energy into financial instruments that could be traded like stocks and bonds. ibid.
Market to market accounting allowed Enron to book future potential profits on the very day the deal was signed. ibid.
‘The insiders had sold off a billion dollars of their stock in the preceding several months.’ ibid. Bill Lerach, attorney for shareholders
Though Lou Pai flew away from Enron with $250 million the divisions he left behind lost a total of nearly $1 billion but Enron managed to disguise that fact. ibid.
Enron mounted a campaign to capture the hearts and minds of stock analysts. ibid.
The game was called Pump and Dump. Top execs would push the stock price up and then cash in their multi-million dollar options. ibid.
Enron had vast natural gas operations all over the world. They had cost billions to build and most were performing terribly. ibid.
The analysts weren’t analysing at all; they were willing to believe virtually anything Enron told them. ibid.
‘Enron has created the market to buy and sell bandwidth like a commodity. Ask why.’ ibid. Enron advert
Enron’s stock soared 34% in two days. ibid.
When Enron announced its latest plan to trade weather, people wondered whether it was good science or science fiction. ibid.
[Andrew] Fastow had to figure out a way to keep the stock price up by hiding the fact that Enron was $30 billion in debt. ibid.
Traders soon discovered that by shutting down power plants they could create artificial shortages that would push prices even higher. ibid.
The year-long energy crisis would cost the state of California $30 billion. ibid.
Ken Lay did have easy access to the Bush administration. ibid.
Jeff Skilling abruptly resigns. ibid.
The SEC launched an investigation when the Wall Street Journal published articles revealing Fastow’s murky deals. Enron announced massive financial restatements. ibid.
Enron’s accounting firm Arthur Anderson had begun destroying its Enron files. On October 23rd Anderson shredded more than one ton of paper. ibid.
Enron declared bankruptcy. ibid.
All the mega-corporations on the planet make their obscene profits off the labour and suffering of others, with complete disregard for the effects on the workers, environment, and future generations. As with the banking sector, they play games with the lives of millions, hysterically reject any kind of government intervention when the profits are rolling in, but are quick to pass the bill for the clean-up and the far-reaching consequences of these avoidable tragedies to the public when things go wrong. We have a straightforward proposal: if they want public money, we want public control. It’s that simple. Michael Hureaux-Perez
Our merchants and masters complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price and lessening the sale of goods. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Isn’t it time that people mattered more than profit? Battle in Seattle 2007 starring Woody Harrelson & Andre Benjamin & Jennifer Carpenter & Martin Henderson & Ray Liotta & Connie Nielsen & Michelle Rodriguez & Channing Tatum & Charlize Theron et al, director Stuart Townsend, Medicine sans Frontiers bloke
The greater the risk the greater the profit: 62nd Rule. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s2e7: Rules of Acquisition, Quark to female
Sisko: A Ferengi without profit –
Nog: Is no Ferengi at all.
Sisko: The 118th Rule of Acquisition. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s3e14: Heart of Stone
Odo: There’s nothing heroic about earning profit.
Quark: There is on Ferenginar. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s6e10: The Magnificent Ferengi
A diversified financial portfolio can bring greater profits and healthier looking skin. ibid. Moogie
A wise man can hear profit in the wind. Star Trek: Voyager s3e5: False Profits, Ferengi mantra
War is a profit-making business. Anybody who says otherwise is a liar or a fool. Michael Piper, author Final Judgement
There appear to be four major profit areas – curses, pardons, relics and selling the sexual favours of nuns. The Black Adder: The Archbishop, Bishop of London, Baldrick, BBC 1983
They placed a ruthless pursuit of profit at the heart of their business model. Bankers III: Payback Time, BBC 2013
They always need to make more profit. But in seeking out profit, they end up eroding the basis on which it’s made. Masters of Money III: Marx, BBC 2012
The Master said, If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment. Confucius
They are monsters trying to devour as much profit as possible. The Corporation, 2003
At the moment we have leaders in this country who care more about the short-term profits of big corporations than they do about the long-term well-being of the average working man and woman. R T Buffenbarger, IAM 20th September 2004
Civilisation and profits go hand in hand. Calvin Coolidge, speech 27th November 1920
Cui bono? [To whose profit?] Cicero, 106-43 B.C.
Our generation must choose: which do we value more, short-term profits or the long-term habitability of our planetary home? Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: Heaven and Hell, PBS 1980
We must change mankind to reject profit and we must work together on some other basis. G Edward Griffin