“60 Minutes” []
Sunday at 7 on CBS
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A FEW years ago, The Montana Power Company, a 90-year-old firm which provided cheap, reliable (did I mention cheap?) power to the entire state of Montana got invaded by a swarm of Gordon Gekkos.
Montana was so consistent and so reliable, in fact, that the company’s corporate officers and their investment banking firm, Goldman Sachs, decided that cheap, good and consistent wasn’t – what? – exciting enough.
So they decided, without stockholder approval – and it appears at the urging of Goldman Sachs and telecommunications cowboy Bob Gannon – to get into the much more glamorous and exciting world of dot coms and telecommunications. Montana Power became – are you ready? – “Touch America.”
Now the stock is practically worthless, electricity is so high that mines and other businesses have had to close (rates doubled four times!) and retirees who’ve been investing in Montana Power Stock since they were in their 20’s are flat broke and looking for jobs well into their 70’s.
This boys and girls is the kind of story that made “60 Minutes” “60 Minutes.”
And most enraging? Despite a second quarter loss of $30 million, the CEO of the company announced bonuses of $5 million for himself and other officers of “Touch America.” Maybe the retirees can go clean toilets.
No wonder, as reporter Steve Kroft points out, Gannon is “The most hated man in America.”