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)

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.

I boarded the Titanic as it was hitting the iceberg

I joined Enron in September 2001 and had a relatively unbiased view of the implosion. Most employees liked Ken Lay all the way until the end. Never heard anything good about Fastow even before everything was exposed. His reputation was that he was an arrogant @$$. Was Watkins more of a whistleblower than others at the company or just jealous that she didn’t get offered the lucrative partnership deals? Enron had smart people and good ideas. Their trading business was really good. Less than a dozen people brought the company down. And Andy Fastow was ordained CFO of the year by CFO Magazine? What a joke!

Fascinating but tedious

It's a great book very well researched. But, and this is no fault of the author, The story of corruption begins early in the book and continues on and on until finally all the Domino's fall Down. It is somewhat tedious and exhausting. For the casual reader not schooled in high level finance much of the deals and special purpose entities that bring down Enron are far too complex to understand without boxes and charts. Which is no surprise because the experts who worked at Enron needed those exact boxes and charts and still were misled.

Excellent!

I have to say, beyond learning corporate and financial terms I didn't know before, this book is amazing. It is a very well written narrative, I only got lost once or twice, and that was mostly do to the 36hour length than anything.

This book sure opened my eyes to what actually went on at Enron, from start to finish, it's amazing. I would drive around the city aimlessly just so I could listen! You would hear one absurdity that passed for logic at Enron and would think that surely, this would be the final nail in the coffin, then you realized you were only two hours in. it's that good.

The narration is the only reason this book didn't receive a five star. I found the character voices indistinguishable at times, and the character personalities seemed to be reduced to, whiny, angry, pensive and passive. There wasn't a lot of differentiation or vocal personality. Other than that, it was well paced, clearly read and a joy to listen too.

The first hour sets things up, it may seem a little slow, but it is definitely worth it. A real must read for any business owner. It should be subtitled, how not to ruin an company.

Journalism in its finest form

The author did his homework for the story. The details and characters described in the book are vivid and believable. The narrator is superb too.

All in all a five stars audiobook! Worth listening again when I find time.

Great Book!

It was like listening to a fast pace novel. 30hrs of my life went by too fast!

The Enron scandal presented in a way that anyone could understand. Who would have thought that could happen!

Starts slow but give it a chance

I almost gave up on this and I am glad I didn't. What the author did was incredible. Great story and great orator. I saw a doc on Enron and thought that might make this repetitive but no. I can't imagine any other book or doc coming close to this content.

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.