Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America PDF
Preview Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America
Praise for Pigs at the Trough “Huffington yanks back the curtains on the ’90s ‘go-go market’ to reveal a portrait of Dorian Greed…. wicked gallows humor … Democrats and Republicans sizzle like bacon under her broilering spotlight. Scrupulous detail … real porcine heft.” —Christian Science Monitor “A rousing call to action. As only she can, Arianna breathes energy and passion into the reform agenda. A withering, breath taking, quintessentially controversial book that will inspire, in flame, and educate.” —Senator John McCain “Arianna Huffington makes an appealing and compelling argument for the repeal of human nature—that part of it that indulges savage, unconscionable, and despicable greed.” —Walter Cronkite “Even the most worldly activist and most cynical political observers will be shocked by what they read here. A powerful book, brimming with wit and sulphurous satire.” —Publishers Weekly “With a passion for the truth and an eye for detail, Arianna Huffing ton reports on the hijacking of democracy. Read it and weep—then head for the barricades. We have work to do.” —Bill Moyers “Arianna Huffington has written the most entertaining tour guide to hell since Virgil led Dante through the Inferno. Crooked CEOs beware!” —Bill Maher Also by Arianna Huffington The Female Woman After Reason Maria Callas: The Woman Behind the Legend The Gods of Greece Picasso: Creator and Destroyer The Fourth Instinct Greetings from the Lincoln Bedroom How to Overthrow the Government On Becoming Fearless … in Love, Work, and Life Fanatics & Fools Right Is Wrong For Isabella, my youngest daughter, with much love Acknowledgments WRITING THIS BOOK was a juggling act—keeping the big themes clear while tracking all the startling details unfolding every day on the front pages of our newspapers. Keeping ahead of this moving target could not have been done without a great team. Deep thanks go to Billy Kimball, who was shuttling back and forth between L.A. and Long Island, and to Peter Abbott, who landed here for a year from Cambridge, our shared alma mater in England, and went back the day after the book went to press. I hope that his decision to return to Cambridge to do a Ph.D. on the use of “terror” in Greek and Shakespearean tragedy was not entirely the result of researching the “pigs.” Additional thanks to Chris Kyle, Moira Brennan, Jon Hotchkiss, Roy Sekoff, Stephen Sherrill, Victor Abalos, Leslie Borja, Mia Mazadiego, Prof. Christopher Gill, and to my good friends Mary Arno, David Booth, Bob Borosage, Marc Cooper, David Corn, Lynda Obst, and Lynn Sweet, who read the manuscript at different stages and greatly improved it. Many thanks also to my anonymous sources, both at the top of the corporate world and among the recently downsized who provided fascinating leads and key details. Like Deep Throat, my inside sources reminded me to “follow the money.” I can’t name them but my thanks go to them all the same. I can name, however, Steven Weiss, Scott Klinger, Russell Mokhiber, Robert Weissman, and Micah Sifry. All my gratitude to my amazing editor, Emily Loose, whose outrage at the pigs never flagged, even after her fourth masterly editorial pass on the same text; and to my incredible agent, Richard Pine, whose involvement embraced every detail from the book’s contract to the book’s content. To Steve Ross, who welcomed me back into the Crown fold, Barbara Marks for the enthusiasm she brought to the book’s promotion, and Caroline Sincerbeaux for all the many ways she helped the pigs come to life. Many thanks also to Barbara Sturman for her work in creating an attractive design for the book, to Amy Boorstein for her expert management of the copyediting, and to Derek McNally for his efforts to make this book come in on time. The book is dedicated to my younger daughter, Isabella, who together with her older sister, Christina, provided constant joyous interruptions. P.S. My thanks and gratitude go to Whitney Snyder, Nour Akkad, and Roy Sekoff, as well as my editor at Three Rivers Press, Sean Desmond, for all their help with Pigs at the Trough circa 2009. Contents Acknowledgments Preface to the 2009 Edition INTRODUCTION Twilight of the Corporate Gods PIGS ON PARADE Power, Perks, and Impunity THE BLOODLESS COUP The Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy THE ENABLERS A Conspiracy of Thousands THE BINGE AND THE RECKONING The Chickens Come Home to Roost Epilogue Afterword to the 2009 Edition Preface to the 2009 Edition HEN I WAS ASKED to reissue Pigs at the Trough in the midst of our W current economic crisis, I sat down to reread it and was stunned by how much of what the book speaks to has brought us to our knees in 2009. Sure, the characters are different, the accounting gimmicks have different names, the sophistication that allows the gimmicks to take place within the law is greatly enhanced, and the numbers have gone from mere billions to hundreds of billions and trillions. So, different pigs, deeper trough, worse result—but, other than that, the narrative is unchanged: CEOs and others at the top of the corporate ladder engaging in rampant—though often legal—corruption to improve the bottom line and line their own pockets until finally they fall prey to their greed and self-indulgence … only to find themselves routinely protected from the retribution of their beloved “free market” by their companies, their peers —and, ultimately, by the government. “So the stomach-turning revelations of corruption that have come to light,” I wrote in the book in 2003, “are surely only the appetizer for a far larger banquet of sleazy scandals.” Little did I know at the time just how much larger the banquet of scandals would end up being. It turned into an all-they-could-eat buffet. The corporate crooks of WorldCom, Tyco, Global Crossing, Adelphia, Enron, and others profiled in this book were largely playing with shareholders’ money (small comfort to the thousands who saw their nest eggs scrambled by the likes of Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and Bernie Ebbers). The new villains are playing with taxpayer money, trillions of it. During the French revolution, Marie Antoinette and her “let them eat cake” attitude became the symbol of not getting it. And just like Marie Antoinette, John Thain, the former Merrill Lynch CEO, didn’t get it even while being led to the corporate guillotine. Though Merrill Lynch was hemorrhaging money and preparing to lay off thousands of workers, Thain, reaching new heights of tone deafness, spent $1.2 million
Description:The list of books you might like
