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The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron
Why Read?
Enron was the star stock of the period just after the tech bubble burst. It was perceived as a “safe investment” because it was an energy company. As it turned out, it was instead a highly leveraged gambling den with bets on energy futures, real estate and other such things.
Lessons to be Learned
- There is no such thing as a “safe” investment.
- Corporate CFOs have a tremendous advantage over auditors because they started their careers as auditors.
- The more exotic transactions are (example The Raptors) the greater the level of suspicion.
- Investors need to look under the hood.
Synopsis
Until the Spring of 2001, The Houston energy giant Enron epitomized the triumph of the new economy. Feared by rivals, worshiped by investors, Enron seemingly could do no wrong. Its profits rose every quarter; its stock price surged ever upward; its leaders were hailed as visionaries. A Fortune writer named Bethany McLean wrote an article posing a simple question — How, exactly, does Enron make its money? — And the company's house of cards began to collapse. Though other business scandals would follow, none has had the shattering effect of Enron's bankruptcy, which caused Americans to lose faith in a system that rewarded top insiders with millions of dollars while small investors, including many Enron employees, lost everything. Despite enormous media coverage of Enron, the definitive story of its astonishing rise and fall comes alive for the first time in this gripping narrative by McLean and her Fortune colleague Peter Elkind. Drawing on a wide range of private documents and well-placed sources, many of them exclusive, McLean and Elkind lead you behind closed doors and deep into Enron's past, to pierce the veil of secrecy that has surrounded the company's inner workings and corrupt culture.
The Smartest Guys in the Room is fundamentally a human drama — of people drunk on their own success, people so ambitious, so certain of their own brilliance, so fueled by greed and hubris that they believed they could fool the world. The book explores the motives, thoughts, and secret fears of a fascinating array of characters. No matter how much (or how little) you already know about Enron, the revelations in The Smartest Guys in the Room will shock you. You'll witness the astonishing extent to which Enron's business was an illusion. You'll meet the enigmatic Enron executive who seemed interested in only two things: money and strip clubs. You'll learn the truth about the California power crisis. You'll see how much Wall Street knew about Enron's shenanigans and why the Street chose to look the other way. You'll learn the dirty secrets that Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and J. P. Morgan Chase have kept out of the headlines to this day. Just as Watergate was the defining political story of its time, so Enron is the biggest business story of our time. And just as All the President's Men was the one Watergate book that gave readers the full story, with all the drama and nuance, The Smartest Guys in the Room is the one book you have to read to understand this amazing business saga.
And the critics agree:
“This book is right up there with Den of Thieves and Barbarians at the Gate … Those who want to learn what happened here, you don't have to read anything but this.” — James Cramer, CNBC
“The best book about the Enron debacle to date … Based on hundreds of interviews and fresh details, McLean and Elkind masterfully weave together the many strands of the Enron story. They shine in their characterizations of Enron's often incompetent executives.” — Wendy Zellner, BusinessWeek
“News junkies and mystery lovers who enjoy financial scandals will devour this multilayered book … The Smartest Guys in the Room will rival other models of the genre, including James Stewart's Den of Thieves … The authors write with power and finesse. Their prose is effortless, like a sprinter floating down the track … The character sketches of former chairman Kenneth Lay, former CEO Jeff Skilling and ex-chief financial officer Andrew Fastow are masterful.” — Edward Iwata, USA Today