AUSTIN--I think the single, greatest nonfattening pleasure in life is learning (the other obvious candidate often leads to complications). And that's why this book is such a joy. In Texas, "joy" can be used as a verb--as in, "He joyed in that battle." And one can joy in this book. So what else is left to be learned about the collapse of Enron? My job is keeping track of the more bizarre forms of Texas weirdness, so naturally I had nothing left to learn when I started Pipe Dreams.

Author's Note

Introduction by Molly Ivins

1 The Job Fair

2 John Henry Kirby and the Roots of Enron

3 Buy or Be Bought

4 The Merger

5 The Lays Move to River Oaks

6 The Valhalla Fiasco

7 "The Smartest Son of a Bitch I've Ever Met"

8 Banking on the Gas Bank

9 Mark-to-Market Account-a-Rama

10 Enron Goes International: Teesside

11 The Big Shot Buying Binge

12 "Kenny Boy"

13 The Dabhol Debacle

14 OPIC: Sweet Subsidies

15 A Kinder, Gentler Enron

16 The Reign of Skilling

I7 "A Pit of Vipers"

18 Cash Flow Problems, Part

19 Chewco: The 3-Percent Solution

20 Sexcapades

21 The Family Lay

22 LJMI

23 Buying Off the Board

24 The Deal Diva

25 Enron's Waterworld

26 Hyping the Bandwidth Bubble

27 Andy Fastow Arrives...in River Oaks

28 Strippers and Stock Options

29 Casino Enron: Cash Flow Problems, Part 2

30 LJMz

31 The Big Five Versus the SEC

32 Derivatives Hocus-Pocus

33 Ken Rice: Missing in Action

34 Analysts Who Think

35 Air Enron

36 Skilling Says a Bad Word

37 George W. to the Rescue, Part

38 Broadband Blues

39 Sleepless in Houston: Cash Flow Problems, Part 3

40 Sherron Watkins Saves Her Own Ass

41 George W. to the Rescue, Part 2

42 You Gotta Have Art

43 Revenge of the Raptors

44 "An Outstanding Job as CFO"

45 Fastow Goes Bye-Bye

46 Posh PJ's

47 Greenspan Gets the Enron Prize

48 One Restatement Too Many

49 The Downgrade

50 The Bankruptcy

51 Epilogue: "Salvation Armani"

Notes

Bibliography

Index