After hearing so much about Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, I was eager to see it. What a disappointment. The underlying story is deep and worthwhile, so I was amazed that the film makers opted at every turn for cuteness over insight. Let me offer two specific examples:
1. Among many examples of a diseased corporate culture run amok, perhaps the purest were the special purpose entities created by Andrew Fastow,ostensibly to hedge risks for Enron, but in actuality to take debt off its balance sheet at great expense to shareholders, while enriching Fastow and his partners. These transactions were complex, but comprehensible, yet the film makers spent virtually no time trying to help us understand them except at the most superficial level.
2. Much is made of Enron's behavior during the crisis in the California wholesale electricity market. While this made for some flashy scenes, and allowed the use of shocking audio tapes of Enron traders being ruthless money-makers, it did very little to illuminate the failings that were particular to Enron. The trading behavior we witness was -- as the film points out -- also happening at other firms at the same time. Moreover, the opportunity to take such wanton advantage of the taxpayers and consumers of California was the result of deeply flawed market design. Finally, in order to maintain laser focus on Enron, the film makers allow Gray Davis and others who bear no small accountability for this disaster to make self-serving, and completely unchallenged statements.
If you have any interest in the Enron story -- and if you're in business, you should -- PLEASE read Kurt Eichenwald's excellent book "Conspiracy of Fools." Afterward, this film provides a useful supplement in that it does allow you to see and hear the amazing lies directly from Lay, Skilling, Fastow and others. This film is worth seeing, but compared with the depth of coverage in a typical Frontline, this is a music video.
1. Among many examples of a diseased corporate culture run amok, perhaps the purest were the special purpose entities created by Andrew Fastow,ostensibly to hedge risks for Enron, but in actuality to take debt off its balance sheet at great expense to shareholders, while enriching Fastow and his partners. These transactions were complex, but comprehensible, yet the film makers spent virtually no time trying to help us understand them except at the most superficial level.
2. Much is made of Enron's behavior during the crisis in the California wholesale electricity market. While this made for some flashy scenes, and allowed the use of shocking audio tapes of Enron traders being ruthless money-makers, it did very little to illuminate the failings that were particular to Enron. The trading behavior we witness was -- as the film points out -- also happening at other firms at the same time. Moreover, the opportunity to take such wanton advantage of the taxpayers and consumers of California was the result of deeply flawed market design. Finally, in order to maintain laser focus on Enron, the film makers allow Gray Davis and others who bear no small accountability for this disaster to make self-serving, and completely unchallenged statements.
If you have any interest in the Enron story -- and if you're in business, you should -- PLEASE read Kurt Eichenwald's excellent book "Conspiracy of Fools." Afterward, this film provides a useful supplement in that it does allow you to see and hear the amazing lies directly from Lay, Skilling, Fastow and others. This film is worth seeing, but compared with the depth of coverage in a typical Frontline, this is a music video.