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That kind of behavior would be unacceptable today. Huge financial rewards accrued to him for being astute. Indirectly his success in the West focused more attention on the West and encouraged exploration and development by others. Astor retired from business as the richest person in the world, so he was very successful at monopolizing the fur trade. As many other wealthy people would follow his example, Astor became somewhat of a philanthropist in his later years. At least he showed some inclination toward social responsibility. Ironically the laws enacted to outlaw trusts have come to the forefront again with the battle between the Justice Department and Microsoft Corporation. In the same ironic way, Bill Gates has emulated Astor through socially responsible acts such as supplying childhood illness vaccines to African countries.
It is interesting how the company operating in the more heavily regulated times is the company that exceeds all others in deceitfulness. It seems that the rules draw a convenient line for unethical firms who can justify their actions by saying that they followed the exact wording of the rules even though there are many potential unethical actions allowed by the rules. The depth of unethical behavior by the Enron executives outdistances Astor's unethical behavior. The Enron executives conspired together to deceive the rest of the world about the company's condition. Astor's actions were much more straightforward. If anyone tried to invade the territory of the monopoly, they were driven out of business....
Astor controlled 99% of American Fur so he was taking all of the financial risks. If the company did not succeed, he would suffer the losses. The losses would not have spread directly to thousands of employees and investors as they did in the Enron collapse. Eventually some of Astor's profits were turned back over to the public through his philanthropic works. At this time it seems like a very remote possibility that we will see Enron's former chairman, Ken Lay, spending any of his money to build a public library.
Bibliography
Altman, Daniel. "Enron Had More Than One Way to Disguise Rapid Rise in Debt." New York Times 17 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/business/17BANK.html.
Barrett, Ted. "Enron CEO warned about 'wave of accounting scandals'." CNN.com. 14 Jan. 2002. http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/01/14/enron.letter/
Norris, Floyd, David Barboza. "Lay Sold Shares for $100 Million." New York Times 16 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/16/business/16LAY.html.
Schwartz, John. "Explanations From One Former Enron Official, Silence From Another." New York Times 17 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/business/17UPDA.html.
Saporito, Bill. "How Fastow Helped Enron Fall." Time, Inc. 10 Feb. 2002. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,201871,00.html.
Stevenson, Richard W. "Why a Business Scandal Became a National Spectacle." New York Times 17 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/weekinreview/17STEV.html.
Bibliography
Altman, Daniel. "Enron Had More Than One Way to Disguise Rapid Rise in Debt." New York Times 17 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/business/17BANK.html.
Barrett, Ted. "Enron CEO warned about 'wave of accounting scandals'." CNN.com. 14 Jan. 2002. http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/01/14/enron.letter/
Norris, Floyd, David Barboza. "Lay Sold Shares for $100 Million." New York Times 16 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/16/business/16LAY.html.
Schwartz, John. "Explanations From One Former Enron Official, Silence From Another." New York Times 17 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/business/17UPDA.html.
Saporito, Bill. "How Fastow Helped Enron Fall." Time, Inc. 10 Feb. 2002. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,201871,00.html.
Stevenson, Richard W. "Why a Business Scandal Became a National Spectacle." New York Times 17 Feb. 2002. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/weekinreview/17STEV.html.
Former Enron employees reported that important documents continued to be shredded despite federal subpoenas and court orders, which prohibited the practice. The employees' condition was so severe that the word "enron" was coined to mean getting victimized or wronged by the company or boss. An "enronian" came to mean an employee or investor who suffers from corporate scandal or corruption through no fault of his or her own. It
Enron could engage in their derivative trading strategy with no fear of government intervention because derivative trading was specifically exempted from government regulation. Due in part to a ruling by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) chairwoman, Wendy Graham, derivatives remained free of regulatory oversight. Ms. Graham, wife of Texas senator Phil Graham, made this ruling 5 weeks before resigning as chairwoman of the CFTC and joining the Enron Board
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE RISE AND FALL OF ENRON Kenneth Lay being one of the pioneers of Enron from its establishment in 1986, had lead the way of Enron's emergence as one of the leading company in the U.S. And eventually to its collapse and declaration of bankruptcy on December 2001. Kenneth Lay held the position as the CEO and chairman of Enron from 1986 to January 23, 2002. Lay is
Disregarding its Ethical Code. Enron had its own set of Ethical Code, but it became redundant because the top managers at the company hardly paid any heed to it. The corporate culture at the company was focused on making "deals" and increasing Enron's share value, while the "outdated, theoretical concept of ethics and morality" was kept on the back-burner. Enron's 'ethics' was personified by Kenneth Lay's exercising of his stock options
Enron hid most of its debts by establishing several LLPs, with some of them being secretly ran by Andrew Fastow, CFO at Enron. By counting only the gains and losses of the companies, but not having to report the LLPs on its financial sheet, Enron's financial position seemed very good. Consolidating the statements would have defeated the purpose of Fastow because the goal was to dump debt, not to report
Later in the year, this same task force, including Cheney, recommended Enron as a company that was upstanding and endorses its many proposals. This further complicated the Enron image giving it further clout to conduct business in an unethical manner. By the end of this year, many of Enron's top executives, including Skilling, begin selling off their shares of company stock. This occurs before it is revealed to shareholders