In the light of Enron Corp.’s difficulties, which last week brought into question its survival without a trip through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, I thought it worthwhile to examine corporate failure in general and Enron’s case in particular to see what are the possible danger signals.

The late 1990’s were a period of “get rich quick” economics, as dot-com billionaires jostled with stock option centi-millionaires for the icons of conspicuous consumption. The 2000’s will be very different; not necessarily a decade of depression, but a decade of Soames Forsyte economics, in which the Forsyte Saga anti-hero’s prudent virtues, sober habits and […]

Enron’s announced Thursday that it was restating its financial results back to 1997 because of losses in limited partnerships involving its chief financial officer. These deals netted CFO Andrew Fastow $30 million and was in many ways the culmination of an extraordinary saga.

A new book, Daniel Pink’s “Free Agent Nation,” advances what is a well-accepted thesis that Americans are increasingly turning to self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship, and that this adds to human happiness. I would dispute the latter. For reasons of security, lifestyle, finance, and, on balance personal fulfillment, I would, all in all, rather work for General […]