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HOUSTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Prosecutors will begin trying on Tuesday to convince a jury that former Enron Corp. CEOs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling conspired to hide the financial disarray that brought down the once-powerful energy trading giant

Their case, the culmination of four years of investigation by the U.S. Justice Department's Enron Task Force, contends Lay and Skilling schemed to hide the company's mountain of debt, lying to analysts and investors even as the company hurled toward bankruptcy.

Contrary to popular mythology, successful businesses must be scrupulously honorable in their dealings in order to survive in a free market that operates on voluntary exchanges of value, e.g., money for goods or services. After all, once word gets around that dealing with so-and-so means getting hosed, the voluntary exchanges stop.

Nothing, nothing, is more important than character in the executive — and companies where it is lacking are doomed. Such companies might thrive for a while as the beneficiary of political favors, or by luring new suckers — but friends in high places come and go, and even idiots catch on eventually.

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