Enron discourse: the rhetoric of a resilient capitalism

Abstract

This paper analyzes two examples of micro-discourse that have emerged in the Enron saga: first, the Letter to Shareholders in Enron's Year 2000 Annual Report; and second, the testimony provided by the CEO of Andersen, Joseph Berardino, to the U.S. Congress in December 2001. The intent is to inform the grander (or mega) discourse relating to Enron and to corporate collapse, US-style.The micro -perspective reveals a rhetoric that is integral to sustaining the ideology of capitalism and to ensuring its resilience and long-term survival. We highlight the authors' reverence of "the market" and a win-at-all-costs form of capitalism; their reification of the business corporation; and their confounding view of the significance of accounting. The micro -discourse also suggests that several of the corporate leaders implicated in the collapse of Enron were deceitful, deceptive, egocentric, arrogant, hubristic and harbored delusional complexes.