Perhaps the Enron employees, reportedly 20,000, who lost both their jobs and retirement savings, will feel the same. But what of the 28,000 additional employees of Arthur Andersen or the stockholders of the bankrupt Pacific Gas and Electric? MSNBC reports a total of 20,000 Enron creditors - individual investors, financial institutions, employees, governments, the wide swath the firm's bankruptcy cut across the City of Houston - with $70 billion in claims against the failed company. Given what is left in the till, most of these claims will go unsettled or for pennies on the dollar.

A recent ABC News article tells the story of Charlie Prestwood, one of thousands of Enron employees who lost everything when Enron froze their retirement plan assets in a company that management knew to be failing.

"Prestwood retired after 33 years of working in a power plant with 1,310,570 dollars and some few cents.

"That was my life savings." he says.

"Today that nest egg is gone... Prestwood gets by on his Social Security checks, watches every penny he spends, and prays nothing will go wrong with his house, his truck or his health."

Years ago, Michael Kinsley wrote "The scandal is not what was done that was illegal. But what was being done that was legal." As Lay and Skilling depart for their new lives behind bars, many questions remain as to whether the newly-tightened accounting regulations can prevent such excessive and willful frauds from recurring.