
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 03:15:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: christian.yoder@enron.com
To: tim.belden@enron.com, elizabeth.sager@enron.com
Subject: Re: PX Investigation

Tim,
This kind of information is very helpful for those of us who will be trying=
=20
to make our way through the Market Monitoring investigation.  Please keep=
=20
forwarding everything like it that you come upon.  Elizabeth said by voice=
=20
mail Thursday, that she is going to be lining up our outside counsel to wor=
k=20
on this and would be calling you soon.  I am going to be out of the office=
=20
from June 30 -July 14. =20

Some of what is expressed in the conversation about the incident is=20
consistent  with one of my own instincts about the matter, which is that =
=20
nobody, including the PX Compliance folks,  should be surprised to learn=20
that   the competitive market forces that  everybody seems to agree are ver=
y=20
positive are going to be applied directly to the electronic system qua=20
system.  Dynamic electronic commerce is going to include a rigorous testing=
=20
of the very media by which it is conducted.  The politicians whose supposed=
=20
wisdom  created this mode of commerce and imposed it upon the California=20
energy market   can't expect to channel the enormous brawling competitive =
=20
energy of a big sector of the American economy into  a  computer software=
=20
system and then throw up their hands and interpret certain kind of=20
commercial  results from the perspective of the  good old days of=20
pre-electronic commerce.   Certain kinds of distortions are going to happen=
=20
in electronic commerce which would not happen in the absence of this mode o=
f=20
conducting business, and these new  kinds of distortions are going to warp=
=20
and twist the system.  Presumably those devoted to keeping the system will=
=20
try to repair it and improve it,  but in doing so,  they need to procede ve=
ry=20
carefully down any path that  might lead to pointing an accusing figure at=
=20
any one particular market participant.  Arguably a big finger might be=20
pointed at those that created this market distorting  mess in the first=20
place. --cgy


