The Enron collapse was blamed by many intellectuals on capitalism and the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Yet the tragedy of Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Enron was actually foreshadowed by the insights of Rand—in Atlas Shrugged in particular. In fact, Ken Lay’s modus operandi made him a real world bad guy “right out of an Ayn Rand novel.” Using Enron examples, Bradley will link Objectivism to best-business practices and make a case for reconstructing classroom business ethics along capitalistic lines.
Robert L. Bradley Jr. is founder and chairman of the Institute for Energy Research; an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise; a visiting fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London; and an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. Chapter 3 of his most recent book, Capitalism at Work applies Ayn Rand’s ideas to recent corporate controversies. Bradley spent nearly 20 years in the corporate world, most of which was at Enron where he was speechwriter for Enron’s late CEO, Ken Lay.