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Conspiracy of Fools
- A True Story
- Narrated by: Stephen Lang
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
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Publisher's summary
From an award-winning New York Times reporter comes the full, mind-boggling true story of the lies, crimes, and ineptitude behind the Enron scandal that imperiled a presidency, destroyed a marketplace, and changed Washington and Wall Street forever.
It was the corporate collapse that appeared to come out of nowhere. In late 2001, the Enron Corporation—a darling of the financial world, a company whose executives were friends of presidents and the powerful—imploded virtually overnight, leaving vast wreckage in its wake and sparking a criminal investigation that would last for years.
Kurt Eichenwald transforms the unbelievable story of the Enron scandal into a rip-roaring narrative of epic proportions, taking listeners behind every closed door—from the Oval Office to the executive suites, from the highest reaches of the Justice Department to the homes and bedrooms of the top officers. It is a tale of global reach—from Houston to Washington, from Bombay to London, from Munich to Sao Paolo—laying out the unbelievable scenes that twisted together to create this shocking true story.
Eichenwald reveals never-disclosed details of a story that features a cast including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul O’Neill, Harvey Pitt, Colin Powell, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Andy Fastow, Jeff Skilling, Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. With its you-are-there glimpse into the secretive worlds of corporate power, Conspiracy of Fools is an all-true financial and political thriller of cinematic proportions.
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The Bank That Lived a Little
- Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market
- By: Philip Augar
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on unparalleled access to those involved, and told with compelling pace and drama, The Bank That Lived a Little is the story of one of the most familiar names on the British high street since Big Bang in 1986. Philip Augar describes in detail three decades of boardroom intrigue driven by ruthless ambition, grandiose dreams and a desire for wealth. It is a tale of a struggle for long-term supremacy between rival strategies and their adherents.
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Global superstar bankers under light-touch gov
- By Philo on 12-21-18
By: Philip Augar
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Red Notice
- A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Red Notice is a searing expose of the wholesale whitewash by Russian authorities of Magnitsky's imprisonment and murder, slicing deep into the shadowy heart of the Kremlin to uncover its sordid truths.
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This is an absolute "YES" as your next read/listen
- By William on 02-07-15
By: Bill Browder
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The Greatest Trade Ever
- The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History
- By: Gregory Zuckerman
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2006, hedge fund manager John Paulson realized something few others suspected - that the housing market and the value of subprime mortgages were grossly inflated and headed for a major fall. Paulson's background was in mergers and acquisitions, however, and he knew little about real estate or how to wager against housing. He had spent a career as an also-ran on Wall Street. But Paulson was convinced this was his chance to make his mark. He just wasn't sure how to do it. Colleagues at investment banks scoffed at him and investors dismissed him.
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Better Books Now Available
- By David on 05-02-11
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Confidence Men
- Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President
- By: Ron Suskind
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 22 hrs
- Unabridged
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The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, New York and Washington, learned how to manufacture it - until August 2007, when that confidence began to crumble. Ron Suskind here tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring rhetoric emerged from obscurity to usher in "a new era of responsibility".
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Insightful, but...
- By Ray on 10-29-11
By: Ron Suskind
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A First-Class Catastrophe
- The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History
- By: Diana B. Henriques
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Monday, October 19, 1987, was by far the worst day in Wall Street history. The market fell 22.6% - almost twice as bad as the worst day of 1929 - equal to a one-day loss of nearly 5,000 points today. Black Monday was more than seven years in the making and threatened nearly every US financial institution. Drawing on superlative archival research and dozens of original interviews, Diana B. Henriques weaves a tale of missed opportunities, market delusions, and destructive actions.
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Financial History Rhymes
- By David Larson on 10-07-17
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The Money Culture
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1980s was the most outrageous and turbulent era in the financial market since the crash of ’29, not only on Wall Street but around the world. Michael Lewis, as a trainee at Salomon Brothers in New York and as an investment banker and later financial journalist, was uniquely positioned to chronicle the ambition and folly that fueled the decade. In these trenchant, often hilarious true tales we meet the colorful movers and shakers who commanded the headlines and rewrote the rules.
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Not the normal great Michael Lewis
- By Me on 05-12-12
By: Michael Lewis
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Exposure
- Inside the Olympus Scandal: How I Went from CEO to Whistleblower
- By: Michael Woodford
- Narrated by: Michael Woodford
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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When Michael Woodford was made president of Olympus - the company to which he had dedicated thirty years of his career - he became the first Westerner ever to climb the ranks of one of Japan’s corporate giants. Some wondered at the appointment - how could a gaijin who didn’t even speak Japanese understand how to run a Japanese company? But within months Woodford had gained the confidence of most of his colleagues and shareholders.
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Starts off great, then gets stupid
- By Happy Mountain on 10-21-21
By: Michael Woodford
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The Zeroes
- My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane
- By: Randall Lane
- Narrated by: Randall Lane
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Magazine entrepreneur Randall Lane had a prime seat at Wall Street's biggest greed fest. The Zeroes is a memoir about the excesses and bad behavior of an outsider who got pulled into a crazy, self-contained world.
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A very entertaining tale
- By andy on 11-03-13
By: Randall Lane
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Boss Life
- Surviving My Own Small Business
- By: Paul Downs
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1986, fresh out of college, Paul Downs opened his first and last business: a small company that built custom furniture. With no idea how to run a business or how to build custom furniture, Downs spent a year teaching himself the business, and in 1987 he hired his first employee. That was when things got complicated.
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Just a story
- By Marsha on 12-31-15
By: Paul Downs
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The Wizard of Lies
- Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust
- By: Diana B. Henriques
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history? These questions have fascinated people ever since the news broke about the respected New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion. Many have speculated about what must have happened, but no reporter has been able to get the full story - until now. Diana B. Henriques of the New York Times has written the definitive book on the man and his scheme.
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The best of 3 madoff books
- By Angela willis on 03-18-13
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DisneyWar
- By: James B. Stewart
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 25 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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DisneyWar is an enthralling tale of one of America's most powerful media and entertainment companies, the people who control it, and those trying to overthrow them. It tells a story that - in its sudden twists, vivid, larger-than-life characters, and thrilling climax - might itself have been the subject of a Disney classic - except that it's all true.
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Really interesting story... No ending.
- By rotinaj on 12-18-17
By: James B. Stewart
What listeners say about Conspiracy of Fools
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Edward
- 07-16-06
Soild View
This is a review of the factual elements of the building and decline of the now household word:
Enron. Appropriately titled - it's a modern version of the Emporer's New Clothes
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 04-09-06
Good Introduction to Enron
The book is very well read, but the author focuses a little too much on pinning the blame solely on Andrew Fastow. It's hard to believe that he fooled everyone. Could have been more balanced by holding the other characters accountable (Skilling, Lay, board members), and should have focused more on Capitol Hill support / involvement in this whole mess. Nevertheless, the book does offer insights into a series of complex actions and transactions that led to the demise of Enron. Jury is still out, though (literally). I gave it only 3 stars as I feel the material only covers 60% of the "real story". Great reader, though.
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Overall
- Kindle Customer
- 10-05-05
Want to get an education?
Then get the audio book Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story by Kurt Eschewal. Listening to this won?t get you a degree, but it will let you know what is going on?and it will keep you awake too.
The writer has done a fantastic job?and I say this as a fellow-writer. It is practically a movie script written as a novel?including settings, actions and expressions for the actors. The narrator should get a medal too.
This could be a TV series?but this won?t happen because it is too embarrassing. It wasn?t just some Enron executives who were fools, it was America itself. The dot-com boom was the biggest foolishness America ever experienced, an experience it may never recover from. It destroyed some of our basic values. It put the system firmly in control.
It?s easy to see what happened from a distance, or at least it seems easy. But when you look at the details, as this book does, you see how many people were involved?some of them striving mightily to keep it from happening; some of them, like Ken Lay, so enraptured with his power he couldn?t see what was going on under this nose; and the white-collar criminals who thought they would get away with it?and almost did. And everything in-between, including accountants who looked the other way, while holding out their hands.
Reality is very complicated, and it is tempting to simplify it into a morality play, and just through the bastards in jail. But if greed and stupidity were crimes, no jails would be big enough. And greed and stupidity are becoming bigger, not smaller?becoming global.
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Overall
- Sharon
- 06-29-05
Conspiracy of Fools
This is one of the best books I have ever "read". It's a great crime novel, unfortunately a true story. The author makes it very easy to understand all of the theft and fraud that took place at Enron. Do not feel daunted by the length of the book. It is a compelling listen.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Rossano
- 01-09-14
Amazing story, superb narrative
Would you consider the audio edition of Conspiracy of Fools to be better than the print version?
The narrator is brilliant, and very well connected to the way the story is written.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
The whole experience is thrilling. The book evolves as a mastery novel, enriched by real life details.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 02-13-08
What a book! History was never so interesting.
Riveting. The factual details used in the "story" and the way the author built the plot, step by step, made it hard to imagine how this could have happened -- it is no wonder our economy took such a shock from this and the other corporate scandals that took place in that era.
Fascinating! Highly recommended!
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Overall
- Andy
- 05-20-05
what a story!
Eichenwald does a great job of putting the listener right into the picture of what was going on at Enron. You feel as if you were looking over the shoulders of the key players as it was happening.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- XEVEN
- 03-29-11
OUTSTANDING WORK
Again this is one book that the detail is absolutely supreme,Very well reconstructed! Absolutely two thumbs up great work Kurt Eichenwald !!!!!!!!!!
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Story
- Loni Gee
- 07-31-17
Very Complicated and Difficult to Follow
What disappointed you about Conspiracy of Fools?
The cast of characters was unbelievable....were they all necessary for the telling of this story? There were as many people as in a Movie epic; just more and more names...it just got very complex. I would like to have a condensed version of how it all came tumbling down, but so many people were involved that it was difficult to keep track of them all. Also, there is a lot of conjecture in this story. I did not really enjoy this book. I don't understand a lot about finances, so maybe that was my problem. What I was looking for was Enron for Dummies 101.
What do you think your next listen will be?
My next listen will be Dickens or Austen....an entirely different genre.
What does Stephen Lang bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
He did a good job...it's pretty straightforward, so it was fine. Not great, just fine.
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
This book filled me with anger at the incredible GREED of the people involved. I could not believe how greedy Fastow was and yet, he got off with the least amount of time. He should be in prison for a very long time. Also, I felt such sadness for the employees who placed all their life savings in this company. They had such faith. And, they are the ones to suffer, while the big wigs just get off with some time in prison, they get out to spend all their millions. Kenneth Lay was an unbelievable CEO; he had no idea of what was going on in his company. Overall, this book is scary about corporate greed and it will likely happen again, for sure.
Any additional comments?
I don't really recommend this book to anyone as it is quite challenging to follow. No wonder Kenneth Lay didn't understand what was going on!
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1 person found this helpful