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End of the Dot-Com Era?

by Robert Capozzi

Jeffrey Skilling -- Enron's smartest guy in the room -- has been sentenced to 24 years. He still contends he's innocent. Never underestimate the power of denial.

Are they all in the slam now? "They" are the high-profile predatory capitalists like Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Koslowski, and John and Tim Rigas. It seems so. It seems that the dot-com era excesses, and the scoundrels that set the pace for defrauding and destroying confidence in the markets, are now pretty much all in the hoosgow.

Can we now turn the page? We may not agree that these excesses have been dealt with properly, but the executive suite and board rooms maybe, just maybe, have gotten the message that cheating your way to fabulous riches is a passing thing. The bad karma boomerang has smacked these bad actors upside the head.

-Robert Capozzi