Conspiracy of Fools

A True Story

By: Kurt Eichenwald

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 30 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling true story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever.

It was the corporate collapse that appeared to come out of nowhere. In late 2001, the Enron Corporation - a darling of the financial world, a company whose executives were friends of presidents and the powerful - imploded virtually overnight, leaving vast wreckage in its wake and sparking a criminal investigation that would last for years.

Kurt Eichenwald transforms the unbelievable story of the Enron scandal into a rip-roaring narrative of epic proportions, taking readers behind every closed door - from the Oval Office to the executive suites, from the highest reaches of the Justice Department to the homes and bedrooms of the top officers. It is a tale of global reach - from Houston to Washington, from Bombay to London, from Munich to Sao Paolo - laying out the unbelievable scenes that twisted together to create this shocking true story.

Eichenwald reveals never-disclosed details of a story that features a cast including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul O’Neill, Harvey Pitt, Colin Powell, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. With its you-are-there glimpse into the secretive worlds of corporate power, Conspiracy of Fools is an all-true financial and political thriller of cinematic proportions.

©2005 Kurt Eichenwald (P)2005 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Nonfiction (Unabridged)

"As an unadorned attempt to get into the heads of some major manipulators, this book can hardly be bettered." (Publishers Weekly)

“The thriller of the year - and it’s all true!” (Dallas Morning News)

“Ranks with A Civil Action as one of the best nonfiction books of the last decade.” (New York Times Book Review)

"Conspiracy of Fools is a splendid achievement. Mr. Eichenwald has an encyclopedic grasp of a watershed business collapse, and has turned it into a gripping read, a true tale for our times." (The New York Times)

gripping

Very complex but clearly explained--engrossing and impressive--better than fiction--and I cannot imagine how it could be abridged--go for the full version--it's worth every minute--my husband is going to LOVE this one. Road trip.

Perfect

This was a great book. It provided hours of listening enjoyment. It is well worth the cost, it is almost a steal.

I will listen to this one again and again.

Excellent & Better than I remember

I own this book; sometimes I look thru my Library for something to listen to. As a CPA, the story of Enron has always intrigued me. I know it only takes two sneaky Client employees to perpetuate a fraud. But this? This was much more than ‘two bad apples’.

Mr. Eichenwald did an amazing job researching and explaining (in layman’s terms) the deals. Back when this happened, I thought the Company used derivatives to ‘trick’ AA. No, it was really a simple shell game, just like you see at a baseball game (you know, the Monkee, between innings?) Of course, Skilling is so intimidating, he scared many of the accountants by implying “You’re so stupid, I can’t believe you can’t understand how our Company works.” It did the trick, the accountants went away, and probably stayed away.

The Reader is excellent, and uses many voices. Lay comes off as calm & blind, which he was.

I definitely recommend this book.

Very nice job.

If you could sum up Conspiracy of Fools in three words, what would they be?

Thorough, Honest, Daring

What did you like best about this story?

The level of detail.

Which scene was your favorite?

Everything associated with LJM.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There were quite a few hard working people doing their jobs. Several had the courage to present unpopular information to those above them. Most of these folks were fired or relocated. I was very grateful one of these smoking guns surfaced, the Watson Memo.

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed the tone of the reader and speed in which the words were read. Great job!

Truly riveting story that leaves no rock unturned

What made the experience of listening to Conspiracy of Fools the most enjoyable?

The in-the-room experience that you typically don't get with non-fiction crime thrillers.

What did you like best about this story?

It feels genuine and thoroughly reconstructed.

Which character – as performed by Robertson Dean – was your favorite?

Jeff Skilling was a particularly artful performance, from the high-powered successful corporate young gun to exhausted, pensive and depressed convict.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Corporate hubris and demise

Wow!

Wow, this story amazes me. It amazes me how long Jeffrey Fastow got away with his greediness without being questioned. I guess because he was such a bully and liar. I don't understand how he only served 6 years in jail. It seems he was the narcissistic mastermind of all the shady robbing peter to pay paul schemes. And Ken Lay seemed like an ostrich with his head in the sand . I also can't believe that some form of this doesn't continue in the corporate world today. Very interesting listen.

Great in-depth look into the Enron collapse.

The performance was quite good but the best part was the amount of information in the book. How so many threads had to come together to cause one of the biggest failures of the modern business world.

"You Can't Make That Shit Up"

I was a bit apprehensive about this considering the legnth of the book and the topic didn't seem like it would be riveting, but it was! I was actually a bit sad when it ended because it was entertaining from beginning to end. You think that they can't think up anything more outrageously unethical but the continue to push the boundaries...until they found it.

Kurt Eichenwald did a great job of researching and telling the story in a way that kept you entertained. Would totally read it again!

Excellent detailed book

The book had a lot of shocking information that I didn't realize about Enron. Even though I thought I knew the story, I was surprised by what I learned.

A wonderful insight

Who knew that a 30 hour book on the collapse of a company could be so interesting? It is very interesting to hear from the inside how events progressed - and the magnitude of the incompetence of key players in the story.