Enron was becoming a virtual cult of creativity, often placing swagger over substance. New ideas were celebrated for their newness, for their potential; tried and true businesses like the pipelines were almost derided.

Enron would keep its unearned windfall, generated solely because David Duncan didn't know what he was doing.

...Fastow had found someone trusting and pliable.Fastow wanted a pupet, Bowen concluded, and he already controlled Ben Glisan's strings.p.338

A eureka moment. It suddenly struck Mintz as so obvious. The executives entrusted with reviewing all of the LJM transactions- Causey, Buy, the board- approached their duties casually, giving everything just the onceover. They seemed to figure that somebody else was doing the tough analysis. But no one was.p.389

In a market, preceptions could be as important as reality.p.403

Kaminski plunged ahead. "I am not going to sign off on anything related to the Raptors," he said. "And I don't care if I'm fired for it."Buy raised a hand. "Whoa, wait a minute, I don't think you'll be fired," he replied quickly. "Now that Skilling's gone, we have a different mantra in Enron."He looked Kaminski in the eye. "We're expected to be honest", he said.p.525

Excuse me, Ben," Bowen said. "Am I wrong, or aren't you the corporate treasurer?"Glisan bristled. "Yes.""What do you mean, you think you can get one?" Bowen shot back. "This is the current fucking maturities schedule! Go get it. You have to have a maturities schedule!"But they didn't. With all the focus on deals and earnings- with finance group's transformation into a profit center rather than a division to support the business- the workday, boring details had been sloughed off.p. 560