Enron: The Rise and Fall Review

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(More customer reviews)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.

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