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The Unlearned Lesson of Enron--4 Years Later

Alex Epstein | 4 December 2005
Four years ago this month, Enron Corporation--number 7 on the Fortune 500--filed for bankruptcy, culminating a collapse that shocked America. It is commonly believed that Enron fell because its leaders, eager to make money, schemed to bilk investors. The ethical lesson, it is said, is that we must teach (or force) a businessman to curb his selfish, profit-seeking "impulses" before they turn criminal. But all this is wrong.

The New York Times Enron Cover-Up

Don Luskin | 20 February 2003
Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay may well have had legitimate reasons for selling his Enron stock at the same time as he was exhorting Enron employees to buy it -- contrary to earlier Times reports that made it seem as though Lay were engaging in a vicious combination of stock-touting and insider trading.

Enron vs. Atlas

Robert Tracinski | 25 September 2002
What is important is not that Ayn Rand recognized the existence of corporate frauds. It is that she grasped the difference between them and the real producers. The basic method of today's commentators is to make us forget that difference.

After Enron: The Cure is Worse The the Disease

James Glassman | 21 June 2002
After any breakdown of a public institution, politicians feel the urge to "fix" things so it doesn't happen again. Often, however, the cure is worse than the disease. That's the case with the proposed remedies following the collapse of Enron.

Social Security: The Enron That Politicians Have In the Closet

Thomas Sowell | 23 March 2002
Social Security is a much bigger operation than Enron and even more people are depending on it for their retirement money. How much they will be cheated out of depends on how artfully future politicians can manage it.

Bush Turns Enron Green

James Glassman | 22 March 2002
On Aug. 4, 1997, Kenneth L. Lay, the chairman of Enron Corp., met with Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin to discuss the global-warming conference coming up in Kyoto. Mr. Lay was an enthusiastic advocate of the Kyoto climate-change treaty -- for two reasons.

Less Government Regulation and More Laissez-faire Required to Prevent Further 'Enron' Scandals

Andrew West | 7 March 2002
Following the Enron scandal, there have been widespread calls for more government regulation of accounting and financial markets. I take the opposite position and suggest that it has been exactly an increase in rules and regulations that brought us to Enron and other cases of faulty accounting in recent years. I think that the real solution to the problem is to properly deregulate financial markets and the financial accounting system.

Enronic Cleansing: Be Warned

Don Luskin | 25 February 2002
The New York Post stories about Cisco are a template for attacking every technology company in America. An over-zealous fervor to wipe out even the most slightly suspicious corporate behavior threatens to become the business equivalent of ethnic cleansing -- call it "Enronic cleansing." When that happens, the good have as much to fear as the evil. And it is beginning to happen, and it is going to be murder on the stock market. Be warned!

Enron, Tyco, and Accounting for Conglomerates

Don Luskin | 24 February 2002
Tyco shows why corporations aren't the only ones who like their accounting a little slippery.
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