Conspiracy of Fools
A True Story
Eichenwald, Kurt
Paperback
$11.02 + $1.99 USPS S/H
$0.55 of your order (5%) will be donated to the school of your choice.
BOOK SUMMARY
Conspiracy of Fools exposes the hubris, deceit, and corruption at the heart of one America's most devastating scandal.
BOOK SYNOPSIS
In 2000, when The Informant was published, few would've imagined that a story about price fixing at Archer Daniels Midland could be as un-put-downable as the best crime fiction. Yet criticsâ€â€and consumersâ€â€agreed: The New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald had taken the stuff of dry business reporting and turned it into an unparalleled page-turner. With Conspiracy of Fools, Eichenwald has done it again.
Say the name "Enron" and most people believe they've heard all about the story that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever. But in the hands of Kurt Eichenwald, the players we think we know and the business practices we think have been exposed are transformed into entirely newâ€â€and entirely grippingâ€â€material. The cast includes but is not limited to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul O'Neill, Harvey Pitt, Colin Powell, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch, and Michael Eisner. Providing a you-are-there glimpse behind closed doors in the executive suites of the Enron Corporation, the Texas governor's mansion, the Justice Department, and even the Oval Office, Conspiracy of Fools is an all-true financial and political thriller of cinematic proportions.
BOOK EXCERPTS
Miami Beach Floridia, 10/27/01:
Capital was evaporating. Confidence was shattered. Regardless of Lay's happy talk
about its prospects, Skilling knew his baby was dying.
Oh, fuck! There's got to be something. Got to be. Outside equity, find investors.
How? No time.Talk to the banks. Look 'em in the eye, tell them you'll pay them
back. Shit! It's too late. Should have had the planes headed to New York last week.
Fuck! Why aren't they doing anything?
He breathed deeply. Again and again, he walked through Enron's maze of
financial problems in his mind, hoping to find some means of escape he had
overlooked. But the answer was always the same. Enron was gone. It couldn't
be saved.
Skilling wiped a hand up his cheek, smearing a tear. Fatigue shadowed
his red-rimmed eyes. He picked up his glass, then glanced at a passing waitress.
"One more," he told her."Pinot Grigio."
Rebecca Carter, Skilling's longtime girlfriend and recent fiancée, sat next
to him with a growing sense of alarm.The two had met at Enron, and had
both left the company in August. For weeks, things had been wonderful;
Skilling had spent time with his kids, did some traveling. Just the day before,
the couple had come to Florida to visit a friend. But with Enron's sudden
troubles on his mind, Jeff was coming apart. Carter had never seen him drink
this much. What was it now? Eight glasses? Ten? She reached out and touched
his shoulder.
"Jeff, can we please just leave?"
"No." He didn't even look at her.
"Jeff . . ."
"No."
"Jeff, you need to stop drinking."
"No." Skilling was stone-faced, unflinching.
The wine kept coming, as many as fifteen glasses. Skilling sat stock-still,
tranquilizing his frayed emotions, growing angry. He was thinking of the
ones he blamed for the troubles. It was the international division, he thought.
They were the ones who wasted billions on lousy projects. They were the
ones who tied up Enron's capital. Skilling tossed them out when Enron stock
was soaring; the longtime international chief, Rebecca Mark, had made tens
of millions of dollars selling her shares.
I kicked them out and saved them, he thought bitterly. They destroyed Enron's
wealth, and I made them rich.
Hours passed as Skilling veered between despondency and fury. Finally
he'd had enough.
"Let's get out of here," he said suddenly, grabbing Carter's hand.
Skilling stumbled out to the street, and Carter wrapped an arm around
him, struggling to hold him up in the crisp October evening. The couple
brushed past crowds as they staggered down Washington Street toward their
hotel.With each tormented step, Skilling fell deeper into incoherence.
"It's going down," he mumbled rapidly, his voice hollow and detached.
"It's going down."
Carter tugged at his arm to keep him moving, astonished."Jeff, come on.
You're talking about Enron."
"It's all going down . . ."The words trailed off.
For ten minutes they lurched along, until the elegant Delano Hotel loomed
ahead, its gleaming white facade serving as a beacon. Carter maneuvered her
fiancé up the terrazzo steps and into the hotel's high-ceilinged lobby.
"Come on," she said."Let's just go to bed."
BOOK REVIEWS
Charles R. Morris - The New York Times
Two questions arise: How could financial and investing professionals have been so badly gulled? And behind all the Potemkin-village financial reports, what was actually going on at Enron? The first question may be one for aficionados of mass hallucination, but Kurt Eichenwald's Conspiracy of Fools brilliantly answers the second … Conspiracy of Fools is a splendid achievement. Mr. Eichenwald has an encyclopedic grasp of a watershed business collapse, and has turned it into a gripping read, a true tale for our times.
Submit a book reviewFOR RELATED BOOKS
Business & Economics Books :: Industries Books :: Energy Industries Books
Business & Economics Books :: Corporate & Business History Books
True Crime Books :: General Books
MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 0767911792
ISBN(13-digit): 9780767911795
Dewey Decimal: 333.790973
Library of Congress: bl2006008890
Book Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 746
Paper Weight (lb): 1.74 lb
If you like this book, you may also enjoy:
