Enron: The Skilling Killing By James J. Cramer 8/15/01 12:50 PM ET

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I am sitting here trying to figure out if there was a worse way for Enron (ENE:NYSE - news - commentary) to handle Skilling's (the CEO's) departure. The more I think about it, the more I realize there wasn't. It would have been better if Enron said that Skilling was resigning and the SEC is investigating accounting! It would have been better to say Skilling was missing! Or even that Skilling was fired because he was an idiot!

In America today there is nothing "personal" if you are a high-profile executive like Skilling. The behavior of the previous president of the U.S. redefined "personal" to mean "everything's public."

That's why the stock is down so much. We live in a culture where people say and talk about the most intimate, tragic and disgusting things in public, so if Enron isn't disclosing what the reasons for the resignation are we have to presume that it is something so horrendous and horrible that we can't own the stock.

I know I won't touch it. Too scary. What a shame. Great company. But until they clear this one up, Enron's a goner.

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