The SQUEEZE: Kurt Eichenwald’s Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story is a financial and political thriller, detailing events surrounding the Enron scandal and the financing strategies that rocked the U.S. economy, Wall Street, and a major accounting firm. Eichenwald provides details of both characters and business practices that led to the demise of the company. Such business practices included aggressive accounting where the company secured permission to change accounting rules with the SEC; rampant law-breaking where the company took risks at the expense of rules, ignoring warning signals from accountants, analysts, and reporters; and complicated financing where the company failed to reveal a system of sound checks and balances. Eichenwald reveals much about Enron CEO Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Andy Fastow, and aims the focus of the discussion also on political (and business) figures such as President Clinton, both Bush presidents, Alan Greenspan, Rupert Murdoch, and Dick Cheney. Eichenwald’s Conspiracy of Fools is ideal reading for economists, business leaders, and financial professionals.

Notable Endorsement: “Ranks with A Civil Action as one of the best nonfiction books of the last decade.” —New York Times Book Review

Common Q’s Answered by this Book:

• How do aggressive accounting practices reveal much about law-breaking?
• What are some warning signals Enron ignored from accountants?
• How did the SEC support Enron’s request to change accounting rules?

About the Author: Kurt Eichenwald is a contributing editor with Vanity Fair. Eichenwald served as a writer and investigative reporter with the New York Times. Eichenwald covered mostly corporate topics such as insider trading, takeovers, and accounting scandals. He also wrote about terrorism, the controversy surrounding Bill Clinton’s pardons, and sexual predators. Eichenwald is the best-selling author of The Informant! (2009), an American biographichal-comedy which was made into a motion picture. Eichenwald graduated from Swathmore College.

Book Vitals:

Publisher: Broadway (December 2005)