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In the latest issue of The New Republic magazine, Peter Eavis calls Enron “a uniquely bad company,” and I agree with him.  From everything I have read, I think that its upper management was comprised of a smarmy group of individuals, many of whom may find themselves in one of those country-club jailhouses in the not-too-distant future.   I

I didn’t watch any of the Winter Olympics that recently concluded in Salt Lake City, but it was hard not to hear of the controversies that defined them.  Early in the games, the tempest over the judging of the figure-skating competition dominated the news, after gold medals were awarded, first to the Russian pair, and then to the Canadian pair two

Hell hath no fury like an accountant scorned. At least I think that is how the saying goes.  It is one that came to mind recently as I was reading about the amusing spectacle  of an estimated 1,000 beleaguered Arthur Andersen employees storming the U.S. Capitol’s West Front Terrace to protest their firm’s federal indictment by the Justice

“[T]he arguments against markets are clear. California is strike one, and Enron is strike two. My God, we don’t need strike three.” --Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member William Massey All fads start in California, or so they say. Unfortunately, this appears to apply equally to alarming trends, from low-rise jeans to socialization of

I receive many emails commenting on my articles that appear on Mises.org, and 99 percent of them are thoughtful comments or rebukes. The other 1 percent sound something like this one (in response to my article “ Enron’s Long Shadow “): Sir, I am astonished and disgusted with your mischaracterization of the California energy market and Enron’s

What’s the difference between the cultures of the private sector and the public sector? Consider the difference between Arthur Andersen and the U.S. Forest Service. A jury has announced that Andersen was guilty of one felony count of obstructing the Security and Exchange Commission’s investigation into the Enron Corp. Although the government’s

What’s up with Amtrak? The government’s peculiar “National Railroad Passenger Corporation” has fallen on hard times, halting service of its high-speed Acela Express for safety concerns and disrupting the plans of those made dependent on this government monopoly.  As a result, many commuters can be forgiven for forgetting that (according to Amtrak

Due to some incredible competition over the last two weeks, this year’s Hubris in Monetary Policy award will go to someone other than Alan Greenspan. To be sure, it looked like Greenspan would retain his trophy after his now-notorious speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo. It was here that The Chairman pulled out the big guns by arguing that monetary policy

Christopher Westley, an assistant professor of economics at Jacksonville State University, delivered this paper at the Mises Institute’s 20th anniversary celebration in Auburn, Alabama, on October 19, 2002. I was asked to talk today about how my work contributes to the Mises Institute and to the advancement of civilization. Saving civilization is

Assume that a friend makes available to you a generous line of credit to your firm at very agreeable terms: low interest rates, loose repayment requirements, and (nod-nod, wink-wink) the implicit agreement that if you can’t make your payments in the future there will be more dough forthcoming. Assume that all of your neighbors have similar