Quotes from Bethany McLean

designer of ditches, not a digger of ditches

I don't like shorts promoting their position.

But "if it's destroyed in the course of the normal policy and litigation is filed the next day, that's great, you know, because we've followed our own policy, and whatever there was that might have been of interest to somebody is gone and irretrievable." Two

she suggested deleting senior Andersen partners from the circulation list for Enron e-mails because it "increases their likelihood of being a witness." Duncan

unmistakable message to boardrooms across the country: You can't lie to shareholders. You can't put yourself in front of your employees' interests. No matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules.

Because the government is taking practically every penny of profit that the two companies generate to shrink the federal deficit, Fannie and Freddie have not been allowed to rebuild any capital, which could absorb losses in the event of another downturn in the housing market.

Skilling was the one Enron executive who did not take the Fifth Amendment before Congress, though his lawyer advised him to do so.

On January 30, 1992, the SEC told Enron that it would not object to the use of mark-to-market accounting beginning that year. On getting the word, Skilling was ecstatic. He quickly gathered his troops in the conference room of the thirty-first floor, where his group had its offices. To celebrate, he brought in champagne: champagne to toast an accounting change!

Why do we need long-term fixed-rate mortgages in a world where the work force of the future is going to change jobs and move every three to five years?

The load was so great that Andersen summoned a shredding truck from a local disposal company called Shred-It. (The company's motto: "Your secrets are safe with us.")

Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.

Part of the problem was that EES hadn't done much more than guess at the energy loads its customers would require. Part of it was those faulty price curves, with their excessively optimistic assumptions.

The worst story I ever wrote was after the conviction of Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay. My co-author and I wrote a piece for 'Fortune' saying everything's going to be different now.

In capital we trust. Capital is our savior, our holy grail, our fountain of youth, or at least health, for banks.

Capital isn't this pile of money sitting somewhere; it's an accounting construct.

I'm not a big believer in the power of more regulation to fix things. I think it can almost be more dangerous because it provides the illusion that things have been fixed without the substance.