Bethany McLean
Bethany McLean
Bethany McLeanis a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine, and known for her work on the Enron scandal and the 2008 financial crisis. She had been an editor at large and columnist for Fortune and a contributor to Slate...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEditor
Date of Birth12 December 1970
CountryUnited States of America
advantage gets
There is an advantage to size. It gets you noticed.
believe ceo certain company deceive delusion early enron financial fraudulent innocent jeff ken lay lesson mean met observer people powerful self smart trial
the powerful lesson from Enron for me is the power of self delusion and how people rationalise and deceive themselves. And I think when Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling say they are innocent now, as they do with their trial approaching in early 2006, they mean it on a certain level. One smart financial observer said to me that he's never met the CEO of a fraudulent company who didn't come to believe in what he'd created.
jeff ken piece wrote
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.
argued capital fund needed
Proponents of privatization argued that cities and states needed private capital to fund all the upgrades that our decaying infrastructure so desperately needed.
almost believer fix fixed power provides regulation
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.
bit curtain people practices pulled
Before Enron, I think people were a bit more naive about the way things worked, and I think Enron pulled the curtain back on unsavoury practices that turned out to be a lot more widespread.
good
What's good for the financial industry probably isn't good for you.
capital fountain health holy trust
In capital we trust. Capital is our savior, our holy grail, our fountain of youth, or at least health, for banks.
hard next rightly worries
Google worries - and rightly so - about how hard it is for a big company to come up with the next hot thing.
fixing mac
Fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in isolation, without looking at the big picture, would be short-sighted.
ability access advise banks cities financing market states whether
The big banks advise cities about whether privatization is a wise choice. They also control the ability of states and cities to access the market for their financing needs.
When Warren Buffett invests in a company, he is conferring upon that company something very unique: his credibility.