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Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron Hardcover – October 8, 2002

by Molly Ivins (Foreword, Author),
Robert Bryce (Author)
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Robert Bryce (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 40 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs; First Edition edition (October 8, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 158648138X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1586481384
  • Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #964,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsPriming the Enron Pump
By TundraBee on April 26, 2003
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Penn Square was peanuts. Robert Bryce's witty racountement of the rise and fall of Enron reminds this reader of Mark Singer's equally entertaining tale of the itty-bitty shopping center bank in Oklahoma City that went bust and took the Western Oklahoma Oil Boom with it.
Bryce's book, with introduction by Molly Ivins, is as eminently readable and well organized as Enron was not. It starts and ends with sympathetic folk - those drug down in the Enron muck. Along the way, the reader meets the Politicos, the Pie (or is that Energy?) In The Sky Wheeler-Dealer Traders, "the Divine Miss Mark," Fast Andy Fastow, Snakey Skilling, and Kenny-Boy (President G.W.'s endearing nickname for his Buddy) Lay. Fans (if any) of Senator Phil and wife Wendy Gramm will not be amused by this foray through the Swamp that was Enron. This is an essential Enron primer, complete with footnotes, Index, and explanations of "Mark to Market" accounting that even us "Liberal Arts" majors can understand.
I urge you to BUY this book. Borrowing the library's copy is not recommended, as one should not write the outraged tirades that this book is sure to produce in the margins of Other People's Books.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAli Baba and His Thieves
By Michael K. McKeon on January 2, 2003
Format: Hardcover
Okay, we all knew that the Enron scandal was noxious, and we knew that there was substantial governmental complicity. However, the degree of bald faced corruption and theft pervading all aspects of the commodities and trade professions and the extensive government acquiescence, if not compliance, which Bryce describes stagger the imagination.
This is a thorough, well documented study of the Enron scandal, from the corporation's early origins. While extensive, and depressing, Bryce alleviates it with sardonic depictions of the unvarnished vulgarity of the senior management feeding at the Enron trough.
Bryce is fair in that he gives the Clinton Administration its due for facilitating the depradations of Enron; however, while resisting the effort to go for the jugular, he makes it clear that the greatest beneficiaries of Enron's largesse were Republicans, particularly the two Bush administrations. He reserves most of his vitriol for Senator Phil Gramm and his wife, who were undeterred at any time by ethical concerns about their undisguised conflicts of interest in judgements on regulations benefitting the corporation that was filling their pockets.
Bryce provides a number of tutorials on accounting and trade and commodity practices that help the "lay" person understand how the transgressions were allowed to occur and mushroom. Reading "Pipe Dreams" you wonder first why the many members of the Enron management aren't in prison, much less the obscenity of their being able to loot the company and retain their obscene fortunes. It is incredibly disillusioning, and you are left with an increased sense of impotence, yet your outrage is alleviated by Bryce's biting sarcastic wit.
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4.0 out of 5 starsLast in a series of reviews
By A Customer on November 26, 2002
Format: Hardcover
This will be my third and final online review of an Enron-related book (barring any oustanding new releases on the subject). As with all previous efforts, I remain anonymous since I was an employee of the company during the mid 90s and would like to avoid any attention which my efforts may draw. Having read the Cruver, Fox, the Bryce/Ivins books and reflected on all the events, this review may feel more like a commentary than an actual review.
That being said I think the common thread throughout all the books is that Enron remains an enigma. Everyone defines Enron differently depending on their perspective and that is affected by the information they have in hand. For some this is an indictment on greed in America. For others this is a monumental failure of governmental oversight and regulation. I believe in neither. In a recent conversation with another former Enron employee, he asked me to allocate 10 points towards the contributing factors of Enron's demise. I don't even recall how I allocated the points and would probably give a completely different answer today. His answer differed significantly from mine as he assigned the majority of the blame to accounting systems and Arthur Anderson. That is endemic of the ever-shifting nature of the situation, and to be honest, events still remain to unfold. Fastow has been indicted, but what is happening with Lay, Skilling, and the other senior managers and board members? If story ends here, the only lesson that will be learned from Enron is that it's probably worth the risk to create an unsustainable, poorly-capitalized business model (and discounting the possibility of fraud to cover up that fact) if you can walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars in stocks and options.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsHOW TO FAIL IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
By E. E Pofahl on February 21, 2003
Format: Hardcover
This is a very readable account. The text opens stating, "My premise throughout this book is that Enron's failure wasn't due to faulty accounting or poor regulation.... Rather it failed because key leaders at Enron lost their moral/ethical direction at the same time that the company was making multibillion-dollar bets on fatally flawed projects." The author asks" Why did a seventy-six year old pipeline company with rock-solid cash flow and reliable earnings suddenly flame out in a maelstrom of accounting irregularities, fraud and skullduggery."
After a brief three-chapter history of Enron, the author develops his thesis that "Enron failed because its leadership was morally, ethically and financially corrupt," showing how deal-focused management took one of the most profitable companies in Houston into bankruptcy. The author, Robert Bryce, a Texas investigative journalist, interviewed over 200 individuals, and researched countless documents, including nineteen SEC filings for this book.
The text discusses the major players in the context of their work, their abilities, Houston society and their work-place relationships. Many former Enron people blamed Ken Lay stating ".... he flat couldn't judge people and said he became blinded to other people's faults. One Executive said Lay 'never understood that the pipelines that are paid for and power and processing plants that are mostly paid for, were the way to make money."
The harshest accounts concern Jeff Skilling and Andy Fastow. Skilling, who became president in 1997, was called by one executive" the smartest son of a bitch I've ever met." However, "Skilling was not a manager, he was a deal maker. Exotic financing schemes and the deals that came with them excited Skilling.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsVery readable and accessible

This is a fine non-technical telling of the story. A person unfamiliar with the deals and other technical aspects of the situation can get some introduction. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Phil O.
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Everything great.

Published 23 months ago by JV
5.0 out of 5 starsA MORE "SENSATIONALIST" PORTRAYAL OF THE FALL OF ENRON

Robert Bryce has written other books such as Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy... Read more

Published on June 21, 2012 by Steven H Propp
5.0 out of 5 starsrain won't lift

A enjoyable book, well-written, with two great points to make. In the first chapter the author talks about how at the end, upper management was not capable of telling the truth to... Read more

Published on March 26, 2010 by Karen A. Lebens
4.0 out of 5 starsUltimate Organizational Culture Piece

I've used this book at the undergraduate and graduate level to stimulate class discussion about ethics and organizational culture. Student reaction has been excellent.

Published on January 12, 2008 by Dr. Joan E. Aitken
1.0 out of 5 starsThe Foward by Molly Ivans should be a clue

The fact that an alleged business book has a forward by Molly Ivans lets you know that this book will be more political and slanted than others. Read more

Published on June 23, 2005 by Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 starsEntertaining But Unnecessarily Biased

This is a highly readable account of some of the highlights of the Enron collapse. The author provides a very easy-to-understand account of the financial manipulation of the... Read more

Published on June 13, 2005 by David_Allen
2.0 out of 5 starsBrazos49 is Right

Just finished reading this and was disappointed to the point of deciding to write a non-positive review. Read more

Published on July 22, 2004 by G. Cattarin
5.0 out of 5 starsUber-Execucrats Get Stomped

Out of many books available on the Enron travesty, this one probably offers the most bang for the buck with its fast-moving and incredibly informative structure. Read more

Published on July 16, 2004 by doomsdayer520
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat reporting by Robert Bryce

The victory of Pipe Dreams lies in its readability. As US prosecutors have explained in their dogged attempts to nail down a case against Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, "If... Read more

Published on May 15, 2004 by Andy Orrock

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