government authorities who recognised the threats MAI posed to local democracy. The MAI was scrapped, but corporations continued to press for MAI-like provisions at the WTO. The threat remains ! The rise of free trade zones (more than 1,000) has put further downward pressure on wages and social programmes and offer low taxes, lax environmental regulations, cheap labour and low overheads for the multinational companies whose interests they serve. The US plays the dominant role in this new world order. The Bush Clan The MAI plan, together with one of the greatest financial scandals in modern times, occurred during the presidency of Bill Clinton, (e.g. Both of his Secretaries to the Treasury had Enron connections). However, it is the links between the Bush family and the Enron Corporation that provides the prime example of the way some US corporations rip off the rest of the world and how they are linked to leading politicians 51. The major shareholders and company executives were to become the legislators that served corporate interests. As Vijay Prashad puts it - ‘the fat cats were to become the running dogs’. Criminality was writ large in the US Administration. The manner in which these crimes have been swept under the carpet is in itself a serious threat to democracy world wide. Many major financial institutions were to become drawn into the web of corruption surrounding Enron activities and many profited from the association: J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, Barclays Bank, Goldman Sachs and most notably Enron’s accountants, Arthur Andersen. Many of the projects undertaken by Enron were funded by US taxpayers and the World Bank and other development agencies and banks. George Bush senior lived near Enron chief executive, Ken Lay, and it was Bush who signed the 1992 Energy Act that weakened the power of the regional utility firms and local government. The law gave rise to the formation of mega firms like Enron. Enron made financial contributions to aid George W Bush’s political career, including $10,500 to the BushCheney Recount Fund that swung him the Election and followed this with $300,000 for the inaugural festivities. 112
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