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The house of cards created by Enron collapses in waves, but the company managed to conceal its failings for many years. Skillings exemplifies this arrogance when earlier in life he was asked by a college professor at Harvard professor if he thought of himself as smart, to which Skillings responded “I’m fucking smart”. Of course, Enron’s practices amounted to fraud, but they instead chose to explain their profits as sophisticated and creative. When a critical reporter from Forbes magazine asks questions about how Enron makes its money (because no one really knew), Enron’s response is to insult her for not understanding their practices. This lavish celebration of power and success clearly infects all the Enron employees. The arrogance that accompanies the accumulation of wealth is shown by the construction of two exclusive staircases ascending to the offices of Ken Lay and Jeff Skillings at the company’s headquarters. In this respect, they are representative of the American financial sector which is premised upon marketing, self-pomotion, deception, and-quite honestly-nothing of actual value being created. Time and again, Enron is intent on trying to believe its own hype, to become successful simply through force of will (independent of tangible resources or assets). Then, Enron deliberately tries to create money out of thin air by using a “mark to marketing” accounting strategy, in which forecasted profits can be counted immediately. The company enacts a Draconian policy that regularly cuts a certain portion of the workforce, to encourage employees to be super-competitive with each other-consequently, people slit throats and scramble to the top, to avoid being left toward the bottom of the heap and thus fired. It’s telling to witness Enron’s geeky men trying to assert their masculinity, by doing dangerous, long-distance motorbike treks, sometimes injuring themselves in pursuit of proving their manliness.
#ENRON THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM FREE MOVIE#
For those who doubt the closeness of their relationship, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room includes a homemade movie the Bushes made for a high-ranking, retiring Enron employee. Bush, future American president, and then later with George W. Founder Ken Lay was close friends with George H. It was unique in its sheer willingness to lie, deceive, and recklessly break things, but it was emblematic of American corporations in its lust for profit at any cost, its masculinist competition, and its desire to curry favor with the powerful in order to avoid regulation. In some ways, Enron was unique or an aberration as a company, but in other ways it was the prototypical American corporation. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room describes Enron from its beginnings, and details all the illegal, immoral, and simply insane things it did, all to receive its well-deserved reputation. Arrogance, pride, power, the abuse of power – they’re all here.While many people recognize the name “Enron”, few today probably know exactly what it did to deserve such an unsavory reputation. Without putting too fine a point of it, the film has all the elements of Greek tragedy it is hubris that ultimately brings down the main characters.
#ENRON THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM FREE TRIAL#
At this writing in early 2006, the principal players in the sordid drama of Enron - believed by some accusers to be the most egregious corporate malefactors in American history - are about to go on trial for pillaging their company and devaluing its stock, leaving thousands of employees and investors holding the bag while they absconded with millions.Īlex Gibney’s documentary examines the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of this Houston, Texas-based firm, which for a time made its top officers wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, and all by engaging in business practices alleged to have been little more than a complex shell game.Įnron founder Ken Lay and his successor as CEO, Jeff Skilling, are pretty well skewered in Gibney’s film, which in its own way is every bit as riveting as a suspense thriller.