Anatomy of Greed: The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider - Hardcover

Cruver, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786710934 ISBN 13: 9780786710935

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2002

Synopsis

Brian Cruver was a firsthand witness to the disturbing, surreal, and hilarious moments of Enron’s long dance with death. When he first entered Enron’s office complex, “the Death Star,” he was the epitome of the Enron employee: young, brash, sporting a shiny new MBA, and obscenely overpaid. From his first day, however, when he was told that some colleagues hadn’t really wanted to see him hired, he found himself in the middle of a venal greed machine whose story unfolded with all the absurdity and frustration of a tale by Kafka crossed with Tulipomania and Liar’s Poker. While Cruver’s book examines the accounting tricks, the insider stock trades—and in a special section, how the grossly lucrative fraudulent partnerships were structured and funded—it also describes everyday life as an Enronian—cocky wheeling and dealing, the sex ’n keg party on the trade floor, casual conversations at the shredder, and the insidious group-think that made Enron employees unquestioningly accept propaganda spoon-fed them by Ken Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and others, such as Tom White, then Vice-Chairman of Enron Energy Services, now Secretary of the Army under George W. Bush. Part of a team with rare “double” access to both external customers and internal systems, Cruver reveals the twisted reality behind the world’s perception of Enron as one of the world’s great corporations. Demonstrating a clear understanding of how business issues intertwines with human foibles, Cruver exposes Enron’s flaws in an entertaining way all readers can understand. A portrait of the author as a young Enronian, Anatomy of Greed reveals the sting of reality, humility, and pain felt by a man whose idols turned out to be fools and scoundrels, and who learned that there is more to life than stock options. Soon to be a TV/film drama, this is a gonzo chronicle that goes behind the scenes to chart the decline and fall of the world's weirdest and richest business cult.

About this title

From the Publisher

VISIT THE ANATOMY OF GREED WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANATOMY OF GREED, AND THE CBS TV MOVIE, THE CROOKED E, WHICH IS BASED UPON THE BOOK.

Advance Praise for ANATOMY OF GREED:

The Unshredded Truth from an Enron Insider

"The Enron managers depicted in ANATOMY OF GREED should have added Brian Cruver’s files and notes to their mountain of shredded documents when they had the chance. Now, Enron prosecutors will have this revealing and compelling book on their shelves until the last jury verdict is delivered. They’d be wise to call Cruver as a witness."—Frank Partnoy, author of F.I.A.S.C.O.: BLOOD IN THE WATER ON WALL STREET, Professor of Law at the University of San Diego

About the Author

No Bio

About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786710934
• ISBN 13: 9780786710935
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 366