Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.790973
EAN: 9781591840534
ISBN: 1591840538
Label: Portfolio Trade
Manufacturer: Portfolio Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: September 28, 2004
Publisher: Portfolio Trade
Release Date: September 28, 2004
Sales Rank: 8746
Studio: Portfolio Trade

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
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.

Amazon.com Review:
Like its subject, The Smartest Guys in the Room is ambitious, grand in scope, and ruthless in its dealings. Unlike Enron, the Texas-based energy giant that has come to represent the post-millennium collapse of 1990s go-go corporate culture, it's also ultimately successful. Penned by Fortune scribes Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, the 400-page-plus chronicle of the scandal digs deep inside the numbers while, wisely, maintaining focus on the "smart guys" deep-frying the books. The likes of paternal but disengaged CEO Ken Lay (dubbed "Kenny Boy" by George W. Bush, one of many prominent public figures with whom he rubbed shoulders), cutthroat man-behind-the-curtain Jeff Skilling, and ethically blind numbers whiz Andy Fastow vividly come to life as they make a mockery of conventional accounting practices and grow increasingly arrogant and bind to their collective hubris. They're not a likable lot, and the writers find it difficult to suppress their astonishment and revulsion with the crew who rapidly went from golden boys and girls of the financial world to pariahs when the bill finally came due. The authors' unrepressed sarcasms are more than often unnecessarily given the scope of the outrage. Enron's leading lights were or a time celebrated for their ability to concoct nearly unfathomable business schemes to hide mounting shortfalls and keeping track on their machinations can be a chore, but, by sticking hard to the story behind the fall, McLean and Elkind have reported and written the definitive account of the Enron debacle. --Steven Stolder




Rating: - Must read - but was it all that obvious?
Agree with previous reviews of this book and no doubt: must read before you do any more investments. Very well researched and exciting read. Describes things they don't teach you on MBA/CFA etc. Looking forward to a similar book on credit crunch!
Have to say though, I'm about half-way through the book (sorry if it changes) but what's a bit disturbing is that all written from "it was all so obvious why didn't everybody see this coming" retrospective perspective. Fair enough, the authors wrote ... Read More

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Rating: - The Crooked E
This book is about a reality so different from my own, I use it as escapism. Although the transactions described are Byzantine, the book nevertheless holds the reader's attention for over 400 pp. Events are presented roughly chronologically; the characters and information accrue like an approaching balloon note; some questions are answered only after the reader has had time to stew. Tension mounts as the house of cards gets impossibly higher!

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Rating: - Lehman brothers: Chapt 11
Actually read this a few months back but thought I'd pen this short review on the day Lehman brothers filed for Chapt 11, Merril Lynch bought for a bargain by BOA, and AIG "restructuring" (ie throwing everything it can overboard). But, I hear you cry, what does Enron have to do with merchant banks? Well if you read this excellent book, you'll find that by the end of its existence Enron was essentially a merchant bank. It traded risk (and made some handsome profits doing so). The original hard infrastructure ... Read More

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Rating: - Advanced accounting shenanigans don't create value
Very well researched account of the rise and downfall of Enron. It chronicles the start and the ultimate demise of this company, which never really had a great business model - (sorry Jeff Skilling). It is amazing that so many "smart" people did not understand basic business skills and the simple difference between economic and accounting gains. Jeff Skilling, a former McKinsey partner, should have stayed with the consulting firm where theory is safely differentiated from real world. Skillings' first mistake ... Read More

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Rating: - Corporate arrogance gone amok
When one reads 'The Smartest Guys In The Room' there is one question that keeps recurring. How did no-one at Enron foresee the company's grizzly demise. The folly of mark to market accounting was reason enoough to expect certain problems, but the endless treadmill that Enron placed itself on concerning the stock price made those problems an inevitability.

Although Elkind and Mclean portray the story well, they really don't have to do much with the material to make a fantastic story of the blistering ... Read More

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