Analysts Grilled

Senate investigators questioned leading Wall Street analysts Wednesday in connection with the Enron affair. In particular, the Senate panel was interested to learn exactly why the corporate continued to rate 'a buy' among analysts whilst it's share price bombed and it headed fast into bankruptcy.

Joe Lieberman, former Democrat Vice-Presidential nominee, is chairman of the panel that is determined to establish whether analsyts were influenced to provide biased ratings in the hope that their employers would receive lucrative investment banking fees from the former energy giant.

Each analyst denied any wrong-doing and confirmed the effectiviness of the 'Chinese Wall' between the analysts and the investment bankers. In essence, the analysts claimed that they were hoodwinked like everybody else. They claimed that they had no reason to disbelieve the statements being issued by the company and the financial information provided by Enron auditor Andersen.