Enron: The Rise and Fall [Paperback]

Loren Fox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2003

"I'd say you were a carnival barker, except that wouldn't be fair tocarnival barkers. A carnie will at least tell you up front that he's running a shell game. You, Mr. Lay, were running what purported to be the seventh largest corporation in America."-Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) to Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, Senate Commerce Science & Transportation's Subcommittee, Hearing on Enron, 2/12/02
The speed of Enron's rise and fall is truly astonishing and perhaps the single most important story of corporate failure in the twenty-first century. In Enron investigative journalist Loren Fox promises readers nothing short of the most compelling and insightful investigation into Enron's meteoric ascent-regarded by Wall Street and the media as the epitome of innovation-and its spectacular fall from grace. In a lively and authoritative manner, Fox discusses how the biggest corporate bankruptcy in American business history happened, why for so long no one (except for an enlightened few) saw it coming, and what its impact will be on financial markets, the U.S. economy, U.S. energy policy, and the public for years to come. With access to many company insiders, Fox's intriguing account of this corporate debacle also provides an overview of the corporate culture and business model that led to Enron's high-flying success and disastrous failure. The story of Enron is one that will reverberate in global financial and energy markets as well as in criminal and civil courts for years to come. Rife with all the elements of a classic thriller-scandal, dishonest accounting, personal greed, questionable campaign contributions, suicide-Enron captures the essence of a company that went too far too fast.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…offers a candid examination of Enron’s evolution, its culture, its rise and its downfall …a clear and enjoyable read.” (City to Cities, July 2004)

Review

". . . Fox fills the void left by Lay and other Enron top dogs in swift, building-block fashion, producing a ground-up view of why the "Crooked E" colossus rose and fell. A sober and clear-eyed book, it's the more restrained of the two [compared to Pipe Dreams]. But it's not too restrained to pass up the chance to get in some good snarkfests over Enron's outsized egos and swagger?or remind us that its swagger is what most investors bought. . . . . Fox places the unspooling of Enron in its market-history context, and his book has gravitas . . . ." ?Barron?s

". . . Fox is a business writer based in New York who digs into how Andrew S. Fastow, Enron's former chief financial officer, set up special purpose entities that ultimately helped cause the company's downfall. Of the three books [including Pipe Dreams and Anatomy of Greed], this one offers the most detailed explanation of Enron as a business." ?New York Times

"Enron: The Rise and Fall is the latest and perhaps most impressive of the recent crop of books about the collapsed energy giant . . . [Fox?s] candid, in-depth examination of Enron?s remarkable evolution, corporate culture and ultimate downfall is in itself remarkable for being both scrupulously detailed while remaining a clear and enjoyable read, even when dealing with the Byzantine complexities of the company?s financial engineering." ?ERisk.com "Book of the Month" review --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471478881
• ISBN-13: 978-0471478881
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #723,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than the Cruver book, November 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Enron: The Rise and Fall (Hardcover)

I am a former Enron employee from the mid-1990s. I do not hold any bitter or bad feelings from my exeperience there and firmly believe that I have benefitted from the experience. I have also previously read and reviewed the Cruver book stating that there would be other books giving a better perspective of the issues. Loren Fox's Enron: The Rise and Fall is one of those books.

Like a good non-fiction business writer, Fox takes a global approach in helping the reader understand what happened at Enron. He immediately lays out the working thesis that the collapse of Enron was symptomatic of the corporate culture at Enron but also reflective of the business environment at-large throughout the eighties and nineties. Even with this viewpoint in mind, he too acknowledges that he lacks all the answers because many of the outcomes from Enron's collapse are still in flux (e.g. Will Fastow go to jail? Will Lay and Skilling get indicted) and the ultimate impacts on corporate America are unclear (e.g. Where is Sbarnes-Oxley taking us?).

To support his thesis, Fox presents a well-researched book presenting the key players in the evolution of the energy giant. He provides the background information on the deregulation of the natural gas industry that led to the formation of Enron. He anlayzed the dueling business strategies of ECT and EI run by Skilling and Mark. With Skilling winning the political infighting, the off-balance sheet shennanigans became more important to obtaining the capital needed to support his grandiose visions. That is where Fastow and Kopper come in. Relative to other journalists including Pulitzer Prize winner Rebecca Smith, Fox better understands and explains the nature of the off-balance sheet transactions (e.g. often a form of Islamic financing but also more complex structures) created by these two but always adding color to story with his inside look at the key personalities (e.g. Kaminski saying, "This is so terminally stupid only Fastow could come up with it.").

It is obvious that Fox has had access and discussions with some very senior managers at Enron in completing this project. Despite that, it still feels as if he has only gotten part of the story. Still I must commend him for the best effort to date.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, August 30, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Enron: The Rise and Fall (Hardcover)

Enron's story seems to have happened all at once. There was a big company with a stock price shooting for the stars and, then, suddenly there was a massive fraud, and the two things came so close together it was like hearing the explosion from a fireworks display after you've seen the light in the sky. Loren Fox's account was one of the first books about Enron and remains one of the best. The author is a skillful, diligent reporter who managed to get the story first and get it right, although Enron did not authorize his book or cooperate with him. His discussion of the company's complex, illegal accounting maneuvers is thorough and, if not quite clear, certainly complete. The book was written during the relatively early stages of the legal proceedings against the architects of the Enron fraud, so a lot of the material uncovered by Justice Department and SEC investigators was not yet available. The demerit of this is that Fox was not able to include much that is now common knowledge about Enron. However, we find that there is an advantage as well: Fox was not excessively guided or directed by common knowledge and conventional wisdom, but instead carved his own path through the thicket of Enron's weird and instructive history.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read in conjunction with Smith/Emshwiller, January 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Enron: The Rise and Fall (Paperback)

This book, plus "24 Days," together tell you everything you need to know about the fall of Enron. This one covers the "rise" better, that one covers the "fall."

What one ought to take away from both books is the realization that, despite the failure and indeed despite the evident criminality, Enron (as Fox says in his epilogue), "wasn't a complete hoax. The company deserved admiration for its early forays into trading gas and electricity, and for its plunge into the innovative financing of energy projects. It out-maneuvered the old-line energy companies to expand the use of derivatives in the energy industry. This introduced new ways of managing risk, which lowered the costs of energy-related transactions for an array of businesses."

Another reviewer has said that the Fox book is a cure for insomnia. The fact is that if you need to have material on Enron MADE interesting for you by dramatic presentation, by a well-shaped narative flow, then you may have trouble with Fox, simply because he lets the material speak for itself.

Sometimes it speaks in ambiguous tones.