• 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
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,918 ratings)

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The Smartest Guys in the Room  By  cover art

The Smartest Guys in the Room

By: Bethany McLean
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
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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)

What listeners say about The Smartest Guys in the Room

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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What a mess

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

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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.

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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.

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Excellent account of the Enron business case

Excellent story of an absolutely crazy time. This was a very enjoyable listen with a great performance by the narrator.

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Bethany Mclean is a genius

Simply outstanding. I'm not suggesting Communism works, or that I would like to live under it, but this book clearly shows that Americans aren't capable of responsibly using capitalism. My loathing for these people makes me almost physically ill.

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Great book!

Recommended read for anyone interested in business and finance. Also good for everyone who wants to hear about everything they never got a chance hear about the Enron scandal:

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