Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

[Bob T]

* ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM

Monday June 13, 2005

Dear Thirsters:

Recently a friend and I saw the movie, “Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room.” We both felt that it was a magnificent use of this versatile, and often abused, medium – to tell a story that is of truly vital importance to every American, a story of organized corporate corruption of almost unimaginable scale and complexity. Director Alex Gibney has found a way to put a human face on the near-unbelievable greed, deception, and dishonesty of those in charge of the Enron, which at the time of its precipitous downfall was the seventh largest US corporation. Gibney bases his adroit use of the film medium on facts provided in a book entitled “The Smartest Guys in the Room : The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron,” by two Fortune magazine reporters, Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. (The book is easy to google.) Since Fortune is hardly a left-wing liberal rant rag, one is especially inclined to trust the figures and numbers Gibney uses to illustrate the Enron case in human terms.

This movie is, in my view, NOT at all a mere “liberal rant.” It is a convincing indictment of corporate behavior that should especially distress those who believe deeply in free market capitalism. This Enron type of behavior, if unchecked by remedial legislative, administrative (one mourns the impending departure of William Donaldson from the SEC) and judicial action, could destroy the American economy, and system of economic opportunity for those many people who work hard, obey the law, and make an actual substantive contribution to social well-being.

The film is so good that I am looking forward to seeing it a second time. See it!

Best,

Bob