James Twilley, 24, of South Bouquet Street has been dealing with some difficult times recently as his Enron stock has plummeted to new lows over the past year and a half.“It’s hard for me,” said Twilley. “That stock was my retirement nest egg. I had over four shares in the stock. Now it’s worth practically nothing, I don't know what I'm going to do.”
Twilley invested in the stock back in January of 2001 when the price was at an all time high of $80 per share. “It’s just hard to deal with,” explained Twilley. “You read about it in the papers, but once you experience it first-hand, it’s like nothing else you can imagine. Because of [Enron's] mismanagement, I lost over $320. That’s almost a week's worth of pay at CVS. It’s always the little guy who gets hurt. I bet my financial future on that stock. I was buying cases of Yuengling Lager non-returnable [bottles] and eating at Sorrento’s Pizza almost every night. Now I'm stuck buying that god-damn PBR and eating at ‘the O’.”
Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay addressed Twilley’s loss at a press conference last Thursday.
“Mr. Twilley is emblematic of the American entrepreneur. He’s the low wage, hard-working individual who uses his intelligence in an attempt to better his life. I would go so far as to call him the symbolic backbone of our economic system. I feel very bad for Twilley and his loss. It’s stories like his which tug at the very fiber of this controversy. While his loss is a travesty, people need to realize that the stock market is a gamble. I would encourage Twilley to diversify his portfolio in subsequent investments and not be discouraged by this loss.”
“It’ll be a long time before I’m back on my feet,” Twilley concluded.
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