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Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron
Enron. The word has become synonymous with excess, avarice, and Wall Street skullduggery. It wasn't always so. Once upon a time, Enron was a stable, profitable company with some of the best energy assets in the world. But in the late 1990s, the company changed.
Surely you've heard about some of Enron's convoluted deals and nefarious accounting practices. But what hasn't been explained is Why? Why did this once-thriving, innovative company with rock-solid cash flow suddenly implode? The answer, Texas business journalist Robert Bryce reveals in this book, is that bad business practices begin with human beings.
Pipe Dreams is not your typical boring business book. It's a gossipy, funny, irreverent analysis of Why Enron Failed. It traces Enron's transformation from a small regional gas pipeline company into an energy Goliath...and then tracks step-by-step, business decision by business decision, extra-marital affair by extra-marital affair, how Enron's leaders were corrupted. Based on interviews with more than 200 current and former Enron employees, as well as Wall Street analysts and dozens of company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pipe Dreams tells the inside story of the greed, sex, and excess that strangled the seventh-largest corporation in America. It contains profiles of the company's key miscreants, including Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Andrew Fastow, and Lou Pai, the secretive trading whiz who sold more stock - $270 million worth - than any Enron executive. There's also a devastating profile of Rebecca Mark, a largely-ignored player in the Enron saga, whose bad deals in India and the water business cost investors $2 billion.
Surely you've heard about some of Enron's convoluted deals and nefarious accounting practices. But what hasn't been explained is Why? Why did this once-thriving, innovative company with rock-solid cash flow suddenly implode? The answer, Texas business journalist Robert Bryce reveals in this book, is that bad business practices begin with human beings.
Pipe Dreams is not your typical boring business book. It's a gossipy, funny, irreverent analysis of Why Enron Failed. It traces Enron's transformation from a small regional gas pipeline company into an energy Goliath...and then tracks step-by-step, business decision by business decision, extra-marital affair by extra-marital affair, how Enron's leaders were corrupted. Based on interviews with more than 200 current and former Enron employees, as well as Wall Street analysts and dozens of company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pipe Dreams tells the inside story of the greed, sex, and excess that strangled the seventh-largest corporation in America. It contains profiles of the company's key miscreants, including Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Andrew Fastow, and Lou Pai, the secretive trading whiz who sold more stock - $270 million worth - than any Enron executive. There's also a devastating profile of Rebecca Mark, a largely-ignored player in the Enron saga, whose bad deals in India and the water business cost investors $2 billion.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published October 8, 2002
2 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Robert Bryce
15 books75 followersRobert Bryce has written three books, his newest being Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence. He was hailed as a 'visionary' by the New York Times, a fact he often repeats to his children and his dog, Biscuit.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 8, 2019
If you enjoyed the TV series Dallas with JR and the rest of the Ewings, you'll enjoy the stories within this book. Greed, affairs, duplicity, stupidity and treachery are recurrent themes. What bothers me most about the Enron story is how the regulators, analysts, press, SEC and federal government allowed many of the business and financial shenanigans to go on so long.
There are very few heroes in this book. When everyone is making a lot of money, no one wants to pull back the curtains and let everyone know how things are really done.
There are a number of very good books and articles about the Enron fiasco. This is close to the top...
There are very few heroes in this book. When everyone is making a lot of money, no one wants to pull back the curtains and let everyone know how things are really done.
There are a number of very good books and articles about the Enron fiasco. This is close to the top...
December 27, 2019
Describes to a great level of detail the events that led to the failure of Enron, then considered one of the largest companies in the U.S. and one of the most innovative. It offers interesting details obtained from the testimonies of many former employees. It's a great tool to understand the causes that led to the failure of such a company, and its basic concepts can be applied to other businesses.
August 15, 2007
It's amazing how disgusting and corrupt people can be.
July 22, 2024
A 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 Independence",' 'Cronies: Oil, The Bushes, and the Rise of Texas,' 'America's Superstate,' etc.
He wrote in his "Author's Note" to this 2002 book, "My goal in writing this book was to explain why Enron failed. I did not attempt to tell every facet of the Enron story ... Instead, I sought to explain why the company got so bollixed up... My premise throughout this book is that Enron's failure wasn't due to faulty accounting or poor regulation... 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."
He suggests the "The Enron meltdown shook American investors' confidence in the entire financial system. American investors, seduced by the irrational exuberance of the Internet Age and rocked to sleep by the greatest bull market in history, were suddenly hit with the ice-cold water of reality: Even the bluest of blue-chip companies could disappear, or be made nearly worthless, almost overnight." (Pg. 7) He summarizes, "the answer to why Enron failed could be boiled down to one word... It was the culture, stupid." (Pg. 12)
He suggests that the massive stock option grants given to executives "created a huge incentive for the company's top management to cut corners, to keep important information hidden." (Pg. 213) "And where was the Enron board while company insiders were making gazillions of dollars? They were, as usual, asleep at the wheel." (Pg. 228) Their auditor, famed accounting firm Arthur Andersen, eventually "became so reliant on Enron that it simply could not afford to lose the company as a client." (Pg. 237) Anderson ultimately collapsed in wake of revelations that they shredded documents, etc.
As Enron began to slide toward bankruptcy, insiders began quietly dumping their stock. (Pg. 283) Soon, CEO Ken Lay admitted that "Enron was losing money, lots of money," and he "casually dropped another bombshell: Enron was taking a $1.2 billion reduction in shareholder equity." (Pg. 310) "So where was (president) Jeff Skilling during the crisis? Enjoying his cash." (Pg. 320)
This book is a very useful complement to other Enron books such as 'The Smartest Guys in the Room.'
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 Independence",' 'Cronies: Oil, The Bushes, and the Rise of Texas,' 'America's Superstate,' etc.
He wrote in his "Author's Note" to this 2002 book, "My goal in writing this book was to explain why Enron failed. I did not attempt to tell every facet of the Enron story ... Instead, I sought to explain why the company got so bollixed up... My premise throughout this book is that Enron's failure wasn't due to faulty accounting or poor regulation... 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."
He suggests the "The Enron meltdown shook American investors' confidence in the entire financial system. American investors, seduced by the irrational exuberance of the Internet Age and rocked to sleep by the greatest bull market in history, were suddenly hit with the ice-cold water of reality: Even the bluest of blue-chip companies could disappear, or be made nearly worthless, almost overnight." (Pg. 7) He summarizes, "the answer to why Enron failed could be boiled down to one word... It was the culture, stupid." (Pg. 12)
He suggests that the massive stock option grants given to executives "created a huge incentive for the company's top management to cut corners, to keep important information hidden." (Pg. 213) "And where was the Enron board while company insiders were making gazillions of dollars? They were, as usual, asleep at the wheel." (Pg. 228) Their auditor, famed accounting firm Arthur Andersen, eventually "became so reliant on Enron that it simply could not afford to lose the company as a client." (Pg. 237) Anderson ultimately collapsed in wake of revelations that they shredded documents, etc.
As Enron began to slide toward bankruptcy, insiders began quietly dumping their stock. (Pg. 283) Soon, CEO Ken Lay admitted that "Enron was losing money, lots of money," and he "casually dropped another bombshell: Enron was taking a $1.2 billion reduction in shareholder equity." (Pg. 310) "So where was (president) Jeff Skilling during the crisis? Enjoying his cash." (Pg. 320)
This book is a very useful complement to other Enron books such as 'The Smartest Guys in the Room.'
December 6, 2019
Must to read for all accountants how NOT to be creative!
December 5, 2020
Unbelievable except it is a true story. Corporate governance nonexistent. Individual greed run amok.
August 24, 2008
Starts out very good but slows down in the middle and picks up speed toward the end. Just like the corporation. The info offered is often shocking. The stock schemes are confusing a person not knowledgable in the stock market. Its often appalling what you read and how we are now affected by it today.
May 11, 2008
Not normally the type of book I would read, but I thought it was great. Good for me to be a little more educated about a world I don't know a lot about. Yet sad to see how out of control & seriously wicked people can get!
September 3, 2011
أستمتعت جداً بقراءة النسخة العربية من الكتاب
معلومات مفصله عن كيفية تلاعب الاعضاء التنفيذيون بالشركات المساهمة بالحسابات و الميزانيات لتمرير مكافأت هائلة لهم و من ثم لتذهب الشركة و المساهمون في ادارج الرياح
أتسأل كم أنرون عندنا بالأسواق الخليجية و العربية
معلومات مفصله عن كيفية تلاعب الاعضاء التنفيذيون بالشركات المساهمة بالحسابات و الميزانيات لتمرير مكافأت هائلة لهم و من ثم لتذهب الشركة و المساهمون في ادارج الرياح
أتسأل كم أنرون عندنا بالأسواق الخليجية و العربية
Read
December 2, 2012excellent, Enron story
October 15, 2010
Just in case your favorite part of moral and financial bankruptcy is strained puns.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews