Enron Failed to Appreciate Its Own Best Interests 1/28/2002
As we learned from last year's Washington Group-Raytheon fiasco, accounting is an interpretive art, professional ethics are pliable and things aren't always as they seem. Bankruptcies are messy affairs where behind-the-scenes haggling and hardball practices produce plenty of winners and losers.
The Enron scandal is a much bigger mess than either of Washington Group's bankruptcies or the IT Group's recent request for protection from its creditors. The Enron bankruptcy undermines confidence in our institutions at a time of war and economic peril, liquidates the retirement nest eggs of many former employees and knocks a hole in power development plans.