Stewart Hamilton and Alicia Micklethwait (2006), Greed and Corporate Failure: Lessons from Recent Disasters (London: Palgrave: 1403986363), has the best short thumbnail discussion of Enron (and of other things) I have yet found:
"At the end of the year [2000], proposed write-offs for asset impairment were on the order of $7 billion against reported shareholders' equity of $11.4 billion. Such a write-down would have greatly increased Enron's debt/equity ratio... loss of investment-grade status... the trading business would be destroyed. Somehow, Fastow persuaded Anderson to defer consideration of this until after the year end. Furthermore, the broadband venture was losing money... the fall in the value of Enron's share price was likely to trigger its guarantee obligations in relation to many of the SPEs..."
Comments