The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron - Books (Peter Elkind, Paperback)

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Customer Reviews of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

Dean
London, UK
6th January 2009

Reads like a Holiday Page-Turner
This is a fantastic book in the mould of "When Genius Failed" and "Barbarians at the Gate". If you liked those 2 then this is in the same vein.

It really does read like a page turner and i could not put it down. This book is a microcosm of the stockmarket in some ways in that it shows how herds behave and how greed completely overrides the need for rational thought. In some ways it made me realise that if i was working at Enron as a "Deal maker" i probably would have done the same if it netted me a $5m bonus. Exposes the human condition(in the business sense anyway) in its raw form.

citynorman
London, UK
5th December 2008

Must read - but was it all that obvious?
Agree with 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 the article "Is Enron overvalued" but did they predict bankruptcy? Did they know about all the accounting tricks before the post-bankruptcy analysis became available? I doubt it. We're all smarter after the fact!
Nevertheless, must read!

Picco Z
London
5th December 2008

Enron' life story
Very exciting story line about the start of Enron and demise of it. Tells a lot about hedging and market speculation. Example of Lehman Brothers. Cant wait other banks stories that went bust in the year 2008

Gaurav Sharma
London, UK
22nd September 2008

Simply Brilliant - a must read if the collapse of Enron interests you
As someone from the media industry, when the Enron scandal was among us, I noted with unhinged irony how books, literature and exposés on the failed giant were simply mushrooming as the subject itself was in ruins. I wondered if there would ever be a book we could describe as the complete package. I am positively delighted to observe that this book is it.

The authors Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind read between the lines, probed and told the story with the sort of brevity and authoritative panache that few Enron insiders have managed, let alone mainstream observers. It would be prudent to remember that McLean, as a reporter, first asked the question about what makes Enron tick; something which had been troubling analysts in certain quarters for a while back in 2001.

Her probing mind and objective treatment of the subject is well reflected in this exceptional account following Enron's collapse. The authors promised to chart the "amazing rise and scandalous fall or Enron", and I feel that they have delivered.

This book is not one-dimensional, it is multi-layered. Whistle-blowing, leaked emails, hidden trading fiascos, evoking of the Fifth Amendment by Enron executives, overseas misadventures, deception, a culture of greed and human tragedy have all been treated at length. Fragile egos of its executives, traders' cockiness and even idiosyncrasies of the egregious Jeff Skilling (CEO of Enron) have been described in considerable detail. The brilliance of this work is that authors' insight into the minds of the Enron executives against a backdrop of the company's wider culture helps the reader understand what ultimately triggered its downfall.

I am inclined to think that Smartest Guys in the Room, is the best and the most definitive book on the Enron fiasco till date and it would take some Herculean effort to better it. It's a must read if the Enron scandal interests you, hit you or intrigues you. If you wish to know about the episode for the very first time, look no further than this riveting account.

A. Fraser
London, UK
16th July 2008

Thoroughly engaging
I found this book to be extremely engaging. I knew nothing in advance of the details of the downfall of Enron but found the balance between the technical aspects and the personalities involved easy to follow and extremely interesting. A great read and a good warning of egos riding roughshod over reality.