Reply #12: Interesting question. [View All]

I'll do my best to answer it, in terms of my limited understanding.

If I'm looking to build a log cabin out in the woods, I can get my Reader's Digest "Back to Basics" and do it myself. I might rely on help from a few friends for doing some parts. But it is something I can do.

If I'm looking to build an apartment complex in the nearest town, I'm going to have to have the overall plan, but I'll subcontract different parts of the work to different groups that specialize in concrete foundations, in plumbing, and in electricity. I'll shop around and find the best local contractors at the best price.

And if I work for a large international firm, and want to promote a number of motels we'll call the Enron-Inns, and invest in gated communities we will call Halliburton Empires, I'm going to be dealing with a board of directors, and with one or possibly two levels of employees below me. But they will do the logistics as far as searching out those in distant lands who lay concrete or forge Niger documents.

In my opinion, there are not Professor Moriarity-like people who know all the details. (In the Plame scandal, for example, Mr. Fitzgerald likely knows more than VP Cheney.) But, as far as who stirs the pot, or puts things in motion, I'd look at that board of directors, and at who they appoint as the director of the company.