Pipe Dreams: Greed, EGO, and the Death of Enron [Paperback]

Make no mistake - this is a good book. Particularly for those who want an overview of what happened at Enron without the intricate detail. It's humorous and opinionated - the author pulls no punches in making obvious his distaste for the entire cast of characters. However if you have already read other books - such as "Conspiracy of Fools" or "The Smartest Guys in the Room" - then this book is ultimately unsatisfying. It doesn't really delve deep enough to understand exactly what was going on. If you're interested in the subject then this book is a good way to get the general idea before reading one of the other aforementioned books. Don't do it the other way round.

Still it's a very good read - short chapters (sometimes very short) make it ideal for bedtime reading. And it's good fun.

This book is superb. It fillets the bones of the Enron debacle like a Dover Sole, through pacy, accurate, precise writing; impressive research and a clarity of exposition that is completely devoid of cant and self-importance. It is difficult to see how it could be bettered.

.........with few hard assets and pretend profits conjured from thin air by convoluted financial double-dealing consisting of worthless IOU's of off-balance sheet dubious entities. The author Robert Bryce, an experienced but according to his CV, a self-effacing journalist with no major awards to his name, tells the fascinating but 'obvious-it-was-going-to-fail story' of perhaps the most ineptly run large business of all time. Whilst all through it was bound to come a massive cropper, and despite already knowing the well publicized ending, I kept half-hoping that the total no-brainers that were in charge of the madhouse would be sussed by the non-Executive Directors and fired en-bloc. No such luck, and yet again a non-Executive Board buried their heads in the sand, kept pocketing massive remuneration, stock options, and expenses and blindly allowed the executive Directors led by Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Andy Falstow, and others to smash the company into the ground causing huge losses to investors and many employees whilst they themselves plundered Enron's rapidly depleting coffers for their own enrichment.

The miscreant financial dodges dreamt up by Skilling and Falstow which 'fast forwarded' Enron's demise, were approved not only by the Board of Directors but by amazingly by the outside Auditors Arthur Andersen (deservedly no longer in existence) and the in-house and outside Legal Advisors. The book carefully details and explains these scams to produce non-existent paper profits, and the sleights of hand to line the pockets of Andy Falstow and others. That these actions were approved by the Board, Auditors, and Lawyers must remain one of the greatest commercial mysteries in recent years if not of all time.

When Jeffery Skilling, the CEO suddenly resigned in July 2001, Ken Lay, in order to placate the financial markets said "There are absolutely no problems that had anything to do with Jeff's departure." This was an absolute whopper, as the reason for his departure was to jump before the crash happened as he knew that through his total mismanagement of Enron's finances, the company had run out of money and all the alternatives to get more.

There are many instances of other very senior executives, enriching themselves massively but at the same time making huge losses for the company. Those at the head of this list are Ken Rice, Lou Pai, and Rebecca Rice. The book also examines the very close relationship between Ken Lay and George W Bush both when he was Governor of Texas and President of the United State of America as well as other prominent public figures that Lay nurtured for patronage and favors.

This is a very good account of a disaster bound to happen. It is well told, indeed not-put-downable, and an excellent and informative read which, surely should earn the Author the award he has thus far missed out on.