That points to the most ironic twist of all in this morality tale. Mr Lay had always described himself as "passionate about markets". That fervent belief in the invisible hand led him to spot one of the most powerful trends of the past decade: the deregulation of commodity markets. He would often forge ahead fearlessly into newly deregulating markets, bully recalcitrant regulators into speeding reforms and develop clever financial vehicles that pressed to the very edge of the law. In the end, though, Enron appears to have overstepped the mark. The resultant backlash comes as a bitter reminder that the market forces that Mr Lay once worshipped can prove a double-edged sword.
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Inside this Report
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Feature Articles
- New SEC Rules Right On Time
- Off-Balance-Sheet Deals: C'est la Vie?
- Off the Balance Sheet, in a Nutshell
- Alternatives to Off-Balance-Sheet Deals
Recommended Reading on Off-Balance-Sheet Financing
- Complex Financing and Cost of Capital
- Disclosure and Investor Trust
- Supersizing Annual Reports
- Banks Coming Clean about Their Leverage
- Bigger Corporate Balance Sheets
- Synthetic Leases, Real Problems
- New Life for Synthetic Leases
- Synthetic Real Estate Leases
Enron Archive
- Beyond Enron
- Preventing Future Enrons
- The Amazing Disintegrating Firm
- What Andrew Fastow Knew
- Are Fastow's Partners on the Hook?
- Independent SPEs?
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