I don’t buy this account of Enron, which has become the standard fable. There was a lot there that was more like straight-up fraud than smart people overcomplicating things and missing the down-home common sense.
Edit: I agree with the “hiding from reality = downward spiral” part strongly.
The book does represent that in the endgame it was spectacularly complicated, charming fraud. But they do seem to have slid into fraud more than having started with that directly in mind—at least so the book alleges. Complication eases the path into fraud, and other downward spirals.
I thought that the standard fable focused on the straight-up fraud of the endgame.
I focus on the incentives to the sales staff. As I understand it, their exit was well-timed, so the situation wasn’t that hard to unravel. But this leaves the question of whether the guys at the top understood what was going on, let alone intended it.
I don’t buy this account of Enron, which has become the standard fable. There was a lot there that was more like straight-up fraud than smart people overcomplicating things and missing the down-home common sense.
Edit: I agree with the “hiding from reality = downward spiral” part strongly.
The book does represent that in the endgame it was spectacularly complicated, charming fraud. But they do seem to have slid into fraud more than having started with that directly in mind—at least so the book alleges. Complication eases the path into fraud, and other downward spirals.
Also see Eliezer’s earlier post.
I thought that the standard fable focused on the straight-up fraud of the endgame.
I focus on the incentives to the sales staff. As I understand it, their exit was well-timed, so the situation wasn’t that hard to unravel. But this leaves the question of whether the guys at the top understood what was going on, let alone intended it.