The Smartest Guys in the Room

The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

By: Bethany McLean

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 22 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The definitive volume on Enron's amazing rise and scandalous fall, from an award-winning team of Fortune investigative reporters.

©2003 Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind (P)2010 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“The best book about the Enron debacle to date.” (BusinessWeek)

“The authors write with power and finesse. Their prose is effortless, like a sprinter floating down the track.” (USA Today)

“Well-reported and well-written.” (Warren Buffett)

Excellent book!

The story was very interesting and written in a way to make it understandable for those of us who are not big business savvy. The narration was excellent!

Very well written & researched:Fascinating!

I could hardly put this book down. The facts and events are breath-taking and the success of the fraud for so long is frightening! The book is fast-paced and packed with almost unbelievably arrogant decisions by brilliant men and women who had no conscience or integrity, It is scary to think that no one successfully challenged the Enron house of cards until it came crashing down under its own weight and damaged so many lives.

The Haunting Story of Enron

The haunting story of Enron, or where the bodies are burried.

How the company formed, how a single esoteric accounting system change, a dash of hubris, and a mentality of "if it's not illegal it is legal" came back with a vengeance.

An interesting listen

As a teenager, I remember hearing about the California power issues, the Enron collapse, and an entire group of people losing their retirement and pensions. I never really knew what happened though nor the total disregard that the Enron management group went through in order to artificially inflate their stock pricing. I also never imagine something like that could be done in such a way.

The book begins a bit slow as it explains the backgrounds of the key players, but once it starts going strong, it’s really interesting. You definitely begin to dislike many of these people for their greed.

The narration is just awesome. Dennis has a great voice throughout. He does not labor for breathe, his cadence is on point, and he’s strong and consistent in his presentation. He definitely helped get me through the topics that went over me head.

Best Documentary Regarding The Enron Scandal

I watched the movie prior to downloading this book. Although the movie was good, this book goes into more detail (as often books do).

if you are interested in the Enron story as much as I am, I highly suggest listening to it.

What a mess

How could anyone ever have thought that mark to market reporting was a sustainable idea haha

Many Lessons Learned

This book was well written and well researched as one would expect from business journalists. It is beyond the scope, but the other part if this story is in the book “Licensed to Lie” by Sidney Powell. That’s where we learn of the prosecutorial misconduct and the imprisonment of the Merrill employees who had little to no involvement with the Nigerian Barge Case. Just because federal prosecutors get convictions doesn’t always mean they did so fairly. Read this book then that one. The DOJ has been out of control for s long time.

A good listen, but a little long

Don’t get me wrong, the authors painstaking research and meticulous details speak for themselves, but for me, it was about two hours long. The incendiary facts speak for themselves, but at times, I felt it was too much. A great book for sure, but I feel they could have left out the numerous details which seemed to drag it along.

Excellent.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Smartest Guys in the Room to be better than the print version?

Haven't read the printed edition, but the narrator does a great job.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The characters and the way Enron was portrayed as the epitome of corporate America in the bull market.

What about Dennis Boutsikaris’s performance did you like?

Yes. Amazing.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

Enrons trading culture.

Any additional comments?

Must buy.

An intriguing thought provoking read

Nice performance, well calibrated to this business morality tale. The book is thought-provoking and written with clarity and forward energy, it does not get bogged down with tangential issues or technical jargon. It’s about people who made bad choices and the consequences of those choices.