Going off the Rails (eBook)

John Plender is a senior editorial writer and columnist at the Financial Times and a regular current affairs broadcaster for the BBC and Channel Four. John has served on the UK government's Company Law Review steering group, and consults on corporate governance for the International Finance Corporation, the private sector lending and investing arm of the World Bank. In 1994 John Plender received the Wincott Award, Britain's premier prize for financial journalism.

About the author vii

Preface ix

Part 1 IMPATIENT CAPITAL 1

1 The turn of the global tide 3

2 The Third World ghetto 25

3 Dr Pangloss comes to Wall Street 53

4 Europe pulls up a drawbridge 81

Part 2 DOUBLE STANDARDS 107

5 Uncreative destruction 109

6 The just-in-time CEO 137

7 Enron, alas 161

Part 3 THE LIMITS OF CONVERGENCE 183

8 Apocalypse later 185

9 The semi-detached samurai 201

Part 4 BEYOND SHAREHOLDER VALUE 217

10 The legitimacy crisis 219

11 Putting the world to rights 243

Index 275

"... cleverly links globalisation and Anglo-American capitalism...
if you want to understand what business is going through, it is an
excellent place to start." (Management Today, March 2003)

'Plender, a respected Financial Times columnist and former
chaiman of the corporate governance consultancy PIRC, analyses the
crisis cogently both on macro and micro levels' (Director, April
2003)

"...His insightful and wide-ranging book is a must for
anyone who wants to understand how global finance shapes the
world..." (New Statesman, 21 April 2003)

"...Going off the Rails looks at the myriad ways in which
those trusted to look after shareholders' money have let them
down..." (Financial Times, 5 May 2003)

"...An intelligent book..."(En, May/June
2003)