Working uptown a few days ago I stopped in the early Sunday morning to look at some notes on my clipboard. Without a thought I had pulled over in front of
the old Safeway store parking lot on the first block of West Granite. It was quite dark and much too early on a dreary, icy and sullen December morning.

The uptown Butte streets were mostly deserted.

From here I had a clear view of the old Hennesy Building, presently the headquarters of what was left of the bankrupt Touch America Company. There were no cars, no humans on the entire south side of the block. The building was as clear to me as the words I am typing.

What happened here is what I thought then and am thinking now. Bob Gannon’s legacy? The folly of deregulation? It was all of that but it was more. Far more then greed and incompetence. For a big part of what Butte was is now gone and can never be replaced. And for what purpose?

The Montana Power Company is extinct. Its replacement, down another block, and also bankrupt and going under the name of Northwest Energy is a foreign entity, a company making the news mainly for payouts and bonuses to executives. As for the bankrupt scandal ridden Touch America. Bob Gannon’s legacy? The folly of deregulation? Again, it is all of that. But the question remains. What really happened here?

The best explanation I can come up with is the old one. Rule and ruin. Wall Street and Montana. You can easily guess who rules and who is ruined.

Recent news out of New York tells me what Wall Street calls the M & A (mergers and acquisitions) activity for the year 2003 is coming back. And here we learn that Wall Street "dealmaker"s ended 2003 with "a sigh of relief." These "dealmarkers" are familiar names, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup etc.

So New York tells us that after nearly a three-year deal drought, the big bankers are back in the chips. The investment banks advised on $1.27 trillion worth of announced deals worldwide in 2003, slightly up from the $1.19 trillion of mergers announced in 2002.

But it’s still a far cry from the $3.4 trillion announced just three years ago, when M&A was on a tear. And, of course, it was Goldman Sachs that advised Montana Power to become Touch America when Wall Street was on such a "tear."

But what is really striking is compared with the real sums involved in Wall Street’s M & A racket, is that the Montana Power -Touch America deal was such small change, a few nickels and even fewer dimes in a world of trillions. Small change on Wall Street but a major catastrophe for Butte and Montana.

It also must be noted that when the bubble burst more then $7 trillion in shareholder wealth had disappeared from the New York Stock Exchange. Among those worthless stocks we find Montana Power/Touch America and Northwestern Corporation.

And none of this made Dick Grasso, CEO of the New York Exchange any poorer. Of course, there was a little noise made over a pay package of $190 million that he designed for himself and approved by a board filled by the same executives from the same investment banks mentioned earlier, the same banks that the NYSE "regulates."

Which happen to be the same investment banks that cleaned up during and after the short-lived dot.com and telecom bubble on Wall Street.

So poor Grasso resigned, his feelings hurt and with a blast at the media upon leaving. "This institution should not be preoccupied with talking about the compensation of its leader," announced the departing CEO in a written statement. He also took with him $140 million in severance pay. Nice work if you can get it.

So there is a lesson to be learned here. These banker-gangsters get paid, and paid well, no matter how badly things turn out. Rule and ruin you might call it.

Shall we call it an old story from what was once known as "The Richest Hill On Earth?"

Happy New Year from Butte, America.

JACKIE CORR can be reached at: jcorr@bigskyhsd.com

Working uptown a few days ago I stopped in the early Sunday morning to look at some notes on my clipboard. Without a thought I had pulled over in front of
the old Safeway store parking lot on the first block of West Granite. It was quite dark and much too early on a dreary, icy and sullen December morning.

The uptown Butte streets were mostly deserted.

From here I had a clear view of the old Hennesy Building, presently the headquarters of what was left of the bankrupt Touch America Company. There were no cars, no humans on the entire south side of the block. The building was as clear to me as the words I am typing.

What happened here is what I thought then and am thinking now. Bob Gannon’s legacy? The folly of deregulation? It was all of that but it was more. Far more then greed and incompetence. For a big part of what Butte was is now gone and can never be replaced. And for what purpose?

The Montana Power Company is extinct. Its replacement, down another block, and also bankrupt and going under the name of Northwest Energy is a foreign entity, a company making the news mainly for payouts and bonuses to executives. As for the bankrupt scandal ridden Touch America. Bob Gannon’s legacy? The folly of deregulation? Again, it is all of that. But the question remains. What really happened here?

The best explanation I can come up with is the old one. Rule and ruin. Wall Street and Montana. You can easily guess who rules and who is ruined.

Recent news out of New York tells me what Wall Street calls the M & A (mergers and acquisitions) activity for the year 2003 is coming back. And here we learn that Wall Street "dealmaker"s ended 2003 with "a sigh of relief." These "dealmarkers" are familiar names, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup etc.

So New York tells us that after nearly a three-year deal drought, the big bankers are back in the chips. The investment banks advised on $1.27 trillion worth of announced deals worldwide in 2003, slightly up from the $1.19 trillion of mergers announced in 2002.

But it’s still a far cry from the $3.4 trillion announced just three years ago, when M&A was on a tear. And, of course, it was Goldman Sachs that advised Montana Power to become Touch America when Wall Street was on such a "tear."

But what is really striking is compared with the real sums involved in Wall Street’s M & A racket, is that the Montana Power -Touch America deal was such small change, a few nickels and even fewer dimes in a world of trillions. Small change on Wall Street but a major catastrophe for Butte and Montana.

It also must be noted that when the bubble burst more then $7 trillion in shareholder wealth had disappeared from the New York Stock Exchange. Among those worthless stocks we find Montana Power/Touch America and Northwestern Corporation.

And none of this made Dick Grasso, CEO of the New York Exchange any poorer. Of course, there was a little noise made over a pay package of $190 million that he designed for himself and approved by a board filled by the same executives from the same investment banks mentioned earlier, the same banks that the NYSE "regulates."

Which happen to be the same investment banks that cleaned up during and after the short-lived dot.com and telecom bubble on Wall Street.

So poor Grasso resigned, his feelings hurt and with a blast at the media upon leaving. "This institution should not be preoccupied with talking about the compensation of its leader," announced the departing CEO in a written statement. He also took with him $140 million in severance pay. Nice work if you can get it.

So there is a lesson to be learned here. These banker-gangsters get paid, and paid well, no matter how badly things turn out. Rule and ruin you might call it.

Shall we call it an old story from what was once known as "The Richest Hill On Earth?"

Happy New Year from Butte, America.

JACKIE CORR can be reached at: jcorr@bigskyhsd.com