Enron ascending : the forgotten years, 1984-1996 / Robert L Bradley.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert L. Bradley Jr. a 16-year Enron employee and Ken Lay confidant, is a noted free-market scholar and public-policy entrepreneur. The founder and chairman of the Institute for Energy Research, Bradley is the author of numerous books and essays on the history and political economy of energy. He is an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.; a visiting fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London; and an honorary senior research fellow at the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2002, he received the Julian Simon Memorial Award for his work on energy and sustainable development.

Intro; Title page; Copyright page; Dedication; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The Process of Enron; Contra-Capitalism; Chairman Lay; Earnings Issues; Corporate Masks; Government Opportunity and Dependence; Achievements (in Political Space); Contra-Capitalist Enron; Lessons for History; Part I: From HNG to Enron: 1984-1987; Chapter 1: The New Houston Natural Gas; A New Company; Back to Gas; New Talent; Acquisitions; Divestitures; Momentum-and Debt; Into 1985; A Final Piece?; Chapter 2: HNG/InterNorth; Northern Natural Gas Company; A Marketing Pipeline; Prelude to a Merger. HNG/InterNorthBuyer's Remorse; A Postmerger Stumble; Getting Together; Ken Lay Takes Charge; Competitive Pipelining; Positioning for the Future; A New Name; Chapter 3: Foundations; A New Home; The New Team; Enduring 1986; Brightening 1987; Conclusion; Part II: Peril and Progress: 1987-1989; Chapter 4: Crisis at Enron Oil Corporation: 1987; Sirens and Denial (Valhalla 1); Crisis and Cleanup (Valhalla 2); Lesson Unlearned; Chapter 5: Recovery: 1988-1989; Managerial Depth and Change; Repositioning EOG; Recommitting to Cogeneration; Pipeline Entrepreneurship; Capturing Gas Marketing. Liquid Fuels: Profitable IncrementalismGetting Political; Vision Accomplished; Part III: Natural Gas, Natural Politics: 1990-1993; Chapter 6: Natural Gas Majoring; A New Vision; Growing the Interstates; Going International; Enron Power; Enron Oil & Gas Company; Liquids; Corporate Culture; Conclusion; Chapter 7: Political Lay; Mr. Natural Gas; Talking Up Prices; Fighting Oil; Warring Against Coal; Getting Gas to Green; Getting Bush to Rio; From Bush to Clinton-Gore; Environmental Enron; Politicking Elsewhere; An Energy Philosopher?; Part IV: Jeff Skilling; Chapter 8: Gas Marketing: 1990-1991. Regulatory Change, New MarketsEnron Gas Marketing: 1990; Enron Gas Services Group: 1991; Mark-to-Market Accounting; Conclusion; Chapter 9: Expanding Gas Marketing: 1992-1993; Enron Gas Services: 1992; Enron Gas Services: 1993; Regulatory Issues; Competition and Pressure; Part V: Expanding Enron: 1994-1996; Chapter 10: The Steady Side; Interstate Pipeline Progress; Enron Oil & Gas Company; Enron Oil Transportation & Trading (EOTT); Conclusion; Chapter 11: Enron Capital & Trade Resources; New Name, Organizational Change; Wholesale Electricity Marketing; International. Risk Management, Corporate CultureTalent Evaluation and Infusions; Conclusion; Chapter 12: International Ambitions; Early Successes; Developing Problems; Unfulfilled Aspirations; Enron Global Power & Pipelines; Enron Engineering & Construction; Conclusion; Part VI: Restless Enron: 1994-1996; Chapter 13: Alternative Energies; Big Thoughts, New Bets; Solar Power; Wind Power; A Try at Fuel Cells; Enron Environmental Services; President's Council on Sustainable Development; Conclusion; Chapter 14: Visionary Enron; New Enron Visions; New-Economy Enron (Gary Hamel); Great Man, Great Company.

SummaryA great fall cannot be understood apart from the rise that preceded it. Enron Ascending is the only book to date that examines in detail the first two-thirds of that iconic energy company's life. Thus, it is the only book to date that exposes the deepest causes of Enron's stunning collapse. Nobel economist Paul Krugman predicted that history would look upon Enron's plummet as a greater turning point than the fall of the Twin Towers. Enron Ascending explains the shock of the company's fall by recalling the astounding achievements of Enron's birth, childhood, adolescence, and early maturity. It sets forth the once-celebrated but now-forgotten industry and innovation that caused the company and its reputation to soar stratospherically. At the same time, always conscious of the company's fate, the book highlights throughout the developing habits of thought and behavior that later evolved into self-destructive acts of desperation and deceit. Written fifteen years after the firm's demise, Enron Ascending offers the long perspective of a uniquely positioned insider, Robert L. Bradley, Jr., the company's director of public-policy analysis and Chairman Ken Lay's personal speechwriter. The book also offers a library of previously unavailable information, drawn from Bradley's innumerable corporate documents and unrepeatable interviews, which he collected in his capacity as the company's prospective historian. Most important, however, Enron Ascending offers an antidote to the unending stories, studies, and books about Enron that are presented as just-the-facts but are in reality shaped decisively by the worldview of their authors. Bradley shows, beyond dispute, that the early habits which set precedents for Enron's history-making demise were directly contrary to the free-market behaviors and capitalist attitudes generally blamed for Enron's fall.