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Read Book Conspiracy of Fools: a True Story CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS: A TRUE STORY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Kurt Eichenwald | 746 pages | 15 Jan 2006 | Random House USA Inc | 9780767911795 | English | New York, United States Conspiracy of Fools - Kurt Eichenwald You can trust the others. You're at a Fortune 50 company, so don't sweat the small stuff. Just don't make me look bad. This book is soon to be made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. View all 4 comments. In it, Eichenwald does a decent job of combining the best of the three others, as if he poached some from each. Conspiracy reads as a novel, combining facts and details with presumably fictional conversations. The sometimes outrageous discussions between characters left me feeling that Eichenwald embellished a little too much, and at Conspiracy of Fools is the fourth Enron-related tale I've read Smartest Guys in the Room, Enron: The Rise and Fall, and Anatomy of Greed being the other three. He often leaves out the nitty gritty details best described by Smartest Guys in the Room, and relies too much on dramatics, like in Anatomy of Greed. And unlike Smartest Guys by far the most well written and complete chronicle of the rise and fall of Enron , Eichenwald has a definite bent to his story, almost insisting that Andrew Fastow was entirely to blame, while painting Jeff Skilling as a basket case whose emotional baggage blinded him to any wrongdoing, and Ken Lay as a social and political juggernaut with blinders on. Other former Enron executives, like Richard Causey and Rick Buy, take far too little blame for their roles in the special purpose entities that ultimately drove Enron under. Conspiracy of Fools is a fairly entertaining, however one-sided it may be, read despite dragging on Smartest Guys in the Room, and the documentary based on the book, are much more highly recommended. View 1 comment. Apr 17, Donitello rated it it was amazing. This book gives sobering data, while reading like a best-selling mystery--a bona fide page-turner. The book is particularly relevant when we put the story of Enron into perspective: Geo. Bush's longtime personal friendship with Enron head Ken Lay; Bush's own businesses in the s--Arbusto and Spectrum also collapsing shortly after HE sold out his personal stock; numerous other financial giants coincident with Enron eg. This book gives a detailed view of the process. I was continually astonished as I read. But then, I always am. People sometimes accuse me of being cynical, but I can honestly reply every time: "To the contrary--I'm constantly amazed! We can't say we weren't told Mar 02, James rated it liked it Shelves: finance. Very pleasant and interesting to read. But is it all true? I find that hard to believe. In any case, Skilling is still in prison. And CEO's are still looting companies with excessive pay and outrageous stock options. Feb 13, Ericka Clouther rated it really liked it Shelves: 0-own , nonfiction , book-club-dad , business , crime , , own-read , own-nonfiction , economics , author- male. Very thorough and interesting account of all the myriad of things that went wrong at Enron and Arthur Anderson. The culture is very familiar to me from my days in big law. View all 3 comments. Jan 29, Valerie rated it it was amazing. It is very rare for me to give a book a 5 so the fact that I gave this one 5 stars should give a hint how much I liked it. I'm not sure what I found so compelling about this book but I was up late several nights reading it. Even though I knew how it was going to end it was sort of like watching a disaster movie, you know it is going to turn out ugly but you still have to watch or read in this case Once things started unravelling, Eichenwald kept up the tension through devices like after an eve It is very rare for me to give a book a 5 so the fact that I gave this one 5 stars should give a hint how much I liked it. Even though I knew how it was going to end it was sort of like watching a disaster movie, you know it is going to turn out ugly but you still have to watch or read in this case Once things started unravelling, Eichenwald kept up the tension through devices like after an event saying this deal would only be in place for two weeks. Really it has an obvious villain, an obvious dupe, and an out of touch king, all classic fiction types. The one piece that I would have liked is an addendum to list who was tried for what crimes and how they fared. The book ended with Ken Lay at his arraignment. Jun 16, Scott Hawkins rated it it was amazing. There are occasions--plane crashes, Chernobyl, Long Term Capital Management--when smart, highly trained people fuck up in a way "oops, my bad" just won't cover. I'm not sure why, but I can read about that stuff endlessly. I think my interest might have to do with the way it exposes gaps in our thinking? Or maybe it's just prurient. I don't know. Probably you're one of the But if you're nodding slig There are occasions--plane crashes, Chernobyl, Long Term Capital Management--when smart, highly trained people fuck up in a way "oops, my bad" just won't cover. But if you're nodding slightly to yourself right now, pick up Conspiracy of Fools. It's the good stuff. Sep 08, Michael Chrobak rated it it was amazing. By far the best 'behind the scenes' look at what was a very public and heavily reported event. The early chapters set the stage perfectly. A company that was far more lucky than skilled, filled with executives who had far more confidence than talent, doing transactions they were never meant to do. By the middle of the book, I was astonished at how deep the criminal activities and outrigh By far the best 'behind the scenes' look at what was a very public and heavily reported event. By the middle of the book, I was astonished at how deep the criminal activities and outright arrogance had penetrated throughout the company. By the final chapters, I was simply appalled at the blatant ignorance of leadership and the complete disregard for basic financial controls in a company that had already collapsed several months, perhaps even a few years, before anyone at the firm began to grasp that something was wrong. A great example of the extent that corporations placed profits and growth above everything else during the turbulent years of the rise and fall of the dot com business world. Jul 26, Kurtbg rated it liked it Shelves: historical , fiction-non , business-economics. This book presents Andy Fastow, Enron CFO, as the principal architect behind the fall of Enron, diminishing the legitimacy of the US financial institution, feeding the CA energy crisis and international problems, specifically in India and Latin America. Fastow created accounting entities which were used to hide Enron debt. He initially named himself the owner of these entities and got the board to dismiss any conflicts of interest. He then played loose with accounting rules and received required This book presents Andy Fastow, Enron CFO, as the principal architect behind the fall of Enron, diminishing the legitimacy of the US financial institution, feeding the CA energy crisis and international problems, specifically in India and Latin America. Why wouldn't you trust your CFO, right? Fastow takes fees for running these entities - which ultimately end up being recognize as Enron years later. Basically he embezzled and gave others a piece of the pie to go along with it. Skilling, Lay and the board don't go into details so they think it's all on the up - hey, Fastow is reducing expense and increasing profit. Gotta love it. Enron's profits are huge. They're the big guy on the block. Well, how do you get this by the external accounting review arthur andersen and the ratings companies Moody? Well, both those companies receive money from Enron for other business. If you don't sign off, maybe that business will go somewhere else. You're numbers will be down, then you're job will be on the block. It's a soft approach to a strong-arm tactic. Politics uses a version of this too. Ask the wrong question of the president and you're access to the white house is cut-off. You can't be a WH correspondent and not have access. You get the SEC to sign-off by describing partially what you are doing. Lay's a big Bush family friend. This is obviously a trustworthy company. All during this Enron has a number of other shady things going on. It sales is eager to book deals a multi-billion facility in India but without any review of what actual costs are. They also get creative and create an energy market in CA which they then manipulate to shakedown a state by holding them as captive consumers. The snowball effect happens no, not Warren Buffett , things start to leek. The culture of loyalty and pettiness internal starts to crumble. Deals fall through, economic triggers are hit. The hidden debt's ugly head appears and the company is actually billion in debt. Just as a deal for Enron to be bought by Dynergy, the 2 company always made fun of by Enron, an economic trigger hits, an additional millions is owed, and the final nail is driven into the Enron casket.
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