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American Morning
Enron Memorabilia All the Rage in Britain
Aired March 01, 2002 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Enron memorabilia surprising as it sounds, all the rage in Britain, thousands of items on the auction block over there. And that's where we're going to go now, across the pond, as we do every Friday, see what's making news on Fleet Street. Our over-there correspondent, Richard Quest joins me this morning from London looking all natty and everything.
Good morning sir.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Jack, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) bid from the gentleman over there in the corner for this marvelous new set of this, that and the other. It's the roll-up, roll-up sale of the year, the unprecedented three-day auction sale. Over 4,000 monitors, 3,000 PCs, everything you could possibly want except shredders. They've taken the shredders out of the auction.
There are thousands of lots. Jack, let me take you live to the auction site at the moment because you can also bid on line, and what you're looking at here is lot 7,069, some filing cabinets, just about to go under the hammer here. You can see the price as it will be in pounds, dollars, and in euros. Bidding will start on that in just a moment.
There are thousands, literally thousands of computers, of chairs, everything that the liquidators are trying to get rid of. It's been the big talking point of the town. There are even, and I'm going along later this afternoon, there are even some promotional Enron giftware and goods. Things like Enron rubber ducks. So, Jack, you and Paula, pull your vast resources, tell me how much you want me to bid, and maybe next ...
CAFFERTY: Those ...
QUEST: ... week here in front of me, I'll have a little Enron rubber duck.
CAFFERTY: Are those the same Enron rubber ducks that Skilling played with in the bathtub?
QUEST: We don't want to know what Mr. Skilling was playing with in the bathtub.
CAFFERTY: I guess you're right ...
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: ... there. Yes I lost my head.
(CROSSTALK)
CAFFERTY: You're absolutely right. Let's proceed.
QUEST: Well maybe he was - but no, let's leave that where it lies. I need my job.
And look, tags for teen bail bandits. Now this is a good one. Basically in Britain, they've now decided that they're going to start tagging - electronic tagging around your wrist or around your leg. They put it around your leg and basically what they do is that will be able to tell the police where you are. Now there's nothing new about this. I know that you do this in the United States.
CAFFERTY: Absolutely.
QUEST: The difference here, oh I shouldn't have - I shouldn't have done that with my lumbago - and the difference here with this one is that they're doing it for teenagers who are on bail at the moment. They've not been convicted ...
CAFFERTY: Wow.
QUEST: ... and people are saying, of course, it's effectively convicting them beforehand and they can't go out in the evening. What, of course, is fascinating about this tale is that teenagers want it. It's now seen as the newest status symbol. One teenager went into his parole officer and said, can I have one of those things please. It'll make me really cool with the dudes. Now ...
CAFFERTY: Well CNN is going to start putting those on our correspondents - those ankle bracelets, so we can keep track of where you guys are.
QUEST: No, they just don't let us out except for lunch, it's Friday. Now listen to this, five - last year six investment bankers went for lunch in the city of London, and they ran up a bill of 44,000 pounds - only six of them - 44,000 pounds, about $60,000, an enormous amount of money.
They basically did it all on wine. Five of those have now been fired because they tried to put it through on their expenses - ho, ho, try that one Mr. Case, see if we can get that one through on a Friday afternoon ...
CAFFERTY: That'd be as in Steve Case ...
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: ... the larger share of the bill, 12,000 pounds - yes, absolutely, chairman of AOL Time Warner ...
CAFFERTY: Right. QUEST: ... how he started it, parent company of this, that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I'm off for lunch. The bill is on you. Watch your credit card or should we give it to Paula?
CAFFERTY: We'll give it to Paula. I understand the restaurant actually threw in the food for free. The booze bill was so big they gave them the meal for nothing.
Richard, I got to run. Have a great weekend. I'll talk to you next Friday.
QUEST: Have a good one.
CAFFERTY: All right partner. Richard Quest, live in London - Paula.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well Jack, we should just let Richard know that we probably can expense the Tic Toc Diner. Should we do lunch the next time he comes to town?
CAFFERTY: There you go.
ZAHN: All right. Anderson, Jack, and Richard Quest - the bill probably will come to what, 15 bucks. Steve Case, I think, will probably OK that.
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