T he spectacular fall of the house of Enron would have been a huge news story were it not for the terror war. Just a few months ago, Enron Corp. ranked number seven on the Fortune 500. But in little more than 15 months, it managed to lose over 99 percent of its equity. As the nation's biggest electricity marketer in the late 1990s, the company led the way for the energy industry--taking advantage of deregulated markets, boldly forging ahead into new ventures around the globe, and impressing uncounted business commentators with its "innovation" and "brand-new thinking." Enron's vaunted CEO, Kenneth L. Lay, emerged as one of the principal backers of, and advisers to, George W. Bush. "Enron was the next big thing," says V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies. "Like the dot-coms, it lived and died on that." But unlike dot-com companies that rose up and flamed out with little fanfare, Enron cut an enormous swath through the real...