Going off the Rails

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