Going off the Rails

The capitalist model was developed in the 19th century and recent events have shown the difficulties of adapting this to the demands of the 21st century, in which human and social capital are of far greater importance than physical capital. In Going off the Rails, John Plender shows how corporate scandals, inflated boardroom pay, corporate governance disciplines and outmoded accountancy conventions have stretched the Anglo-American model to its limit and what the effects of this might be on globalisation and the capital markets.

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