ercised options of more than $361 million" (Wall Street Journal Online). Few modern-day business failures have grabbed as much attention and started as many lawsuits and official investigations as the collapse and bankruptcy filing of energy-trading giant Enron, once the seventh-largest company in America. While much of what happened is still a matter for investigators and eventually courts to decipher, Enron is more than a story about one company. It's about a system for doing business permeated by corporate power abuse, conflicts of interest, rigged corporate "oversight" systems, disrespect for workers and a flawed anti-government dogma. Enron used complex partnerships to keep some $500 million in debt off its books and mask its financial problems so it could continue to get cash and credit to run its trading business. Enron officials have acknowledged that the company has overstated its profits by more than $580 million since 1997. In a six-week downward spiral last fall, Enron disclosed a stunning $638 million third-quarter loss, the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into the partnerships and the company's main rival backed out of an $8.4 billion merger deal. Enron filed for protection from creditors on December 2 in the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. Its stock, worth more than $80 about a year ago, has tumbled to less than a dollar a share. Enron's collapse left investors burned and thousands of employees out of work with lost retirement savings. More than 6,100 Enron employees have lost their jobs, health care and retirement savings-for many, their life savings-because worker 401(k) plans were frozen while the company stock price tumbled. On the day before Enron declared bankruptcy, however, bonus checks for more than $55 million were written to company executives, on top of another $50 million in bonuses just weeks earlier.
             You'd think that writing an ethics...