Conspiracy of Fools
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Conspiracy of Fools is a book by Kurt Eichenwald detailing the Enron scandal, named after the famous book A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. [citation needed] It was published in 2005. Eichenwald is a business journalist with the New York Times.
[edit] Synopsis
Eichenwald uses narrative – including recreating dialogue, settings, and moods – to bring alive the infamous Enron story.
The convicted former CFO of Enron, Andrew Fastow serves as the antagonist and villain of Eichenwald's version of the Enron implosion. Some critics feel Eichenwald goes too easy on Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, respectively Enron’s CEO and President during the years before the scandal (Skilling was also briefly CEO before abruptly quitting). Lay's brand of villainy is here too, it's just more subtle, sophisticated, and perhaps more insidious than the actions of his errant CFO Fastow.
Eichenwald crafts a narrative of vignettes that walks the reader through the Enron case one scene at a time. He was assisted by a small staff of professional research assistants who helped him wade through the volumes of documentation from the Enron scandal generated by assorted government investigations and litigation.
Fastow is portrayed as the most rotten element at the core of a company gone bad. The scope of his fraud is breathtaking. Yet his tactics are old-hat in the world of white collar crime: setting up front corporations and partnerships, paying himself "management" and "consultant" fees as if he were an outsider with Enron funds (while he is serving as CFO), etc. Eichenwald makes a strong case that it was primarily plain old fashioned greed that drove Fastow – greed and a twisted sense of what it meant to earn respect in the world.
Eichenwald goes back to the 1980s to point out some questionable activities at Enron, but the bulk of the book occurs from 1997 onward as Enron spins increasingly out of control. They audaciously cooked their books, a talent that Fastow excelled at.
In addition to the story of Fastow, the complicity of Enron's accountants (at Arthur Andersen), their lawyers (internal and external), the senior management (Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling), and Enron's board, only serve to make the story that much more interesting. There is also the supporting cast of underlings who play along, some pocketing millions of illicit (essentially embezzled) dollars as they do so.
Eichenwald holds back from editorializing. The players are portrayed as complex human beings – even as many are sliding uncontrollably down the slippery slope of ethical lapses. Some of the players are incompetent, and some are out-and-out criminals (dozens have been convicted of crimes).
The question of how we prevent future Enrons is not one Eichenwald addresses here.
Eichenwald's version of the collapse of Enron and Arthur Andersen, more than anything else is a story of the dark side of human nature. Still, those at the center of the storm are not demonized.
[edit] See also
[edit] Related Books and Films
- The Corporation - Documentary film about the concept of the corporation
- Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - Documentary film depicting the rise and fall of Enron.
