This is a college professor's explanation in laymen's terms

Capitalism -- You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

Enron Venture (Vulture) Capitalism -- You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

Now do you see why a company with $62 billion in assets is declaring bankruptcy?

And now some information that was forwarded to me by my chaplain friend, Michael L. White, who has his own web site at http://www.parsonplace.com
Stop by and pay him a visit -- you'll be blessed when you do!

Here is the message:

Subject: Enron & The White House

Certainly there is a political dimension here. Enron's chairman did meet with the president and the vice president in the Oval Office.

Enron gave $420,000 to the president's party over three years. It donated $100,000 to the president's inauguration festivities.

The Enron chairman stayed at the White House 11 times.

The corporation had access to the administration at its highest levels and even enlisted the Commerce and State Departments to grease deals for it.

The taxpayer-supported Export-Import Bank subsidized Enron for more than $600 million in just one transaction.

BUT...the president under whom all this happened wasn't George W. Bush.

It was Bill Clinton!

[Source: Information passed over the internet with a few graphics added to dress it up a bit by the guy who operates a maverick web site known as Circuit Rider's Range ]