An Economic Education

If you've ever wondered just what the Enron debacle was all about, try to get hold of the January 8, 2007 number of The New Yorker. Malcolm Gladwell has the closest thing to an explanation the economically and financially obtuse (such as your servant) are ever likely to get. It's really quite an interesting read. Enron actually did make all the relevant disclosures and anyone with the time to read the 114,000 pages of disclosure (single-spaced, tiny-typed, regulatory agency-inspired CPA disclosure prose, to be sure) would have known exactly what was going on. Gladwell does it in nine (9) pages and uses considerably racier prose.

It doesn't appear to be on the web. But if your library has it, look on page 44.

ADDENDUM: A kind reader who is better at researching the New Yorker site than I am located the article on line. It's here.