After Enron - by William a Niskanen (Paperback)

About the Book

After Enron addresses the major lessons about accounting, auditing, taxation, and corporate governance that are illustrated by the collapse of Enron and other recent major corporate scandals. The book then develops a set of proposals for changes in public policy that would lea...

Book Synopsis

After Enron addresses the major lessons about accounting, auditing, taxation, and corporate governance that are illustrated by the collapse of Enron and other recent major corporate scandals. The book then develops a set of proposals for changes in public policy that would lead accountants, bankers, board members, lawyers, and corporate managers to better serve the interests of the general public.

Review Quotes

After Enron should be read by all those interested in the regulatory state and the workings of the market place.

Niskanen (chairman of the Cato Institute) presents the second book to result from his organization's project assessing the major policy lessons to be drawn from the collapse of the energy giant Enron....This collection of 20 papers consider broader issuers of corporate governance and regulation, including accounting problems and their alternatives, the failure of the entire Enron auditing chain, provisions of the tax code that influence the character of executive compensation and promote the conditions leading to backruptcy, and corporate governance rules that have shifted power to corporate managers relative to shareholders over the past few decades.

The big question in corporate governance these days is whether the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of regulation. It comes as no surprise to learn that the Cato Institute, the libertarian-minded Washington think tank, thinks it has. Cato has laid out its case in a book of short, accessible essays titled After Enron....It forces those of us who welcome most of these regulations to think hard and critically about them.

This is a stimulating and insightful view of the weaknesses of corporate governance and their monitors, and of government policy related to recent corporate scandals. Recommended.

About the Author

William A. Niskanen has been the chairman of the Cato Institute since 1985, following service as a member and acting chairman of President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors. He had previously served in two other federal positions, as director of economics of the Ford Motor Company, and as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles. He currently resides on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Kathryn.