The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron
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The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Bethany McLean (Author), Dennis Boutsikaris (Narrator), Penguin Audio (Publisher)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,924 ratings
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The definitive volume on Enron's amazing rise and scandalous fall, from an award-winning team of Fortune investigative reporters.

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  1. Listening Length
    22 hours and 30 minutes
  2. Author
    Bethany McLean
  3. Narrator
    Dennis Boutsikaris
  4. Audible release date
    November 11, 2010
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Penguin Audio
  7. ASIN
    B004BZQQAS
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 22 hours and 30 minutes
Author Bethany McLean
Narrator Dennis Boutsikaris
Audible.com Release Date November 11, 2010
Publisher Penguin Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B004BZQQAS
Best Sellers Rank #6,698 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#4 in Business Ethics (Audible Books & Originals)
#7 in Business Ethics (Books)
#10 in Economic History (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
3,924 global ratings
Defective! Missing pages!
1 Star
Defective! Missing pages!
Well the first 36 pages were great.... til I realized the book jumps from page 36 to 101!! It’s missing pages! And no damage at all to the spine or any other part of the book. How can a brand new book be missing pages?!
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Top reviews from the United States

David Lipschitz
5.0 out of 5 stars Corruption & and Corruptibility
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2014
Verified Purchase
If you want an insider view of how corruption works, and how to ensure that it doesn't happen to you, read this book.

If one didn't know better, one would think one was reading a John Grisham or Clive Cussler fiction novel! I couldn't put the book down! It is fast paced, full of action and suspense, and the interrelationships between the people in the company, the bankers, the investment bankers, the traders, the SEC, the government, the press, the auditors, the analysts, are often beyond belief. So many people at so many levels were corrupted by the opportunity to make BIG money by corrupting the system, i.e. by obeying the letter of the accounting law (at least at first), rather than the ethical reasons for those laws.

The book also shows that one cannot judge a book by its cover. The analysts and auditors, who should have done their jobs, but weren't because of the lure of extremely high fees for their companies, were part of the problem. It is my firm belief that if you are an investor, you need to find your own reliable research, that you can trust, and where the researcher isn't being paid, directly or indirectly, by the company you wish to invest in. You also need to be able to read accounts, especially footnotes!

Lastly I really feel for the millions of small investors and their pension funds who invested in Enron and other similar companies. Enron directors and their top employees effectively stole $38 billion from someone. This someone ends up being millions of employees, who trust that their investments are being managed properly, but really have no idea if this is happening.

And the book shows how one can follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, whilst behaving completely unethically and against the spirit of the law.

I learnt so much about the system and as someone who is pro-deregulation, I now understand why 100% deregulation is not a good idea, although I would wish that the regulator remains impartial and independent, and if this is the case, who pays this person's salary?

Enjoy the read, and at least for part of it, imagine that it was John Grisham or Clive Cussler who wrote it. Well done to the authors for an incredible book.
One person found this helpful
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Hawkeye
4.0 out of 5 stars Enron: Before the Wolf of Wall Street...If you desire to know what happened to Enron, this is The Big Enchilada!
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
This long read is a comprehensive history of the Enron debacle that shook the investment, accounting, and energy world at the turn of the 21st Century. It took the authors' McLean and Elkind over three years to process what had occurred at the company. This book now is updated to include the Enron trial and the death of Ken Lay. It is very interesting to view how the Harvard MBA, Jeff Skilling, impacted Enron from his "start-up" Darwinian Enron Finance and brought down the entire company.
The authors have performed an outstanding feat of investigating, uncovering, understanding and then explaining in simple terms the "Creative Accounting Practices" Fastov and colleagues conceived for "out of the box" shell games that made Enron appear to be growing. As a former Enron stock holder I am quite disturbed at this revelation for I could not detect this gaming practice by viewing their annual reports. I also learned from Chapter 18 Enron was responsible for my Blockbuster investment going south at that time.
These accounting duplicity practices were created due to the obsessiveness with Enron executives making Wall Street Quarterly estimates. The financial chicanery included: Mark to Market Accounting, revisiting contracts, delayed recording losses, tax avoidance schemes, Mariner Energy "piggy back fair" market accounting, and prepays which obtains money that gives cash flow but does not show up on the books as debt. The end result---Enron was using the value of its own stock through conflict of interest to buy hedges in outside shadow companies and limited partnerships (LP) it created. Additionally, Fastov was recruiting and coercing banks he hired for Enron to invest in these off balance sheet vehicles. Enron was finally brought down by its broadband venture EBS and through EBS and grossly outrageous accounting duplicity of Project Braveheart. They tried very hard to pump blood into this patient, but it was all for naught.
To fully understand this book one needs to read it several times along with a course of irregular accounting principles. I am also impressed at how the authors tracked the devices Enron created and the complexity of the account structures is overwhelming and difficult to track. Enron did all of this through a dizzying complex series of derivative transactions by applying the value of its own shares that had been fraudulently driven up by its executives continuous boastful arrogance. Fascinatingly complicated Enron is the biggest story of my time.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Joseph Myren
5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME
Reviewed in Canada on March 20, 2024
Verified Purchase
AWESOME
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Prameet
5.0 out of 5 stars extremely well researched
Reviewed in India on April 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
Brilliant book, dives into exhaustive detail. Sketches out the characters complexity really well. Worth a read to understand some of the behaviour flaws that ruin a giant corporation.
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Jose
5.0 out of 5 stars No todo vale para ganar
Reviewed in Spain on October 5, 2019
Verified Purchase
Muy interesante libro que refleja la caída de un imperio energético (y financiero) así como el final de una era. Si no fuera porque los protagonistas vulneraron sistemáticamente la ley con muchas de sus decisiones (y su desmedida ambición), casi se podría sentir admiración por ellos. No todo vale en esta vida para ganar y este libro sirve un ejemplo paradigmático.
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Thurnheer Carol
5.0 out of 5 stars The rise and fall of Enron
Reviewed in Germany on April 30, 2019
Verified Purchase
It is easy to read, even for people with no financial background. I sometimes miss a little more detail about their accounting practices but understand that this might be tough to read for others. All in all, it explains very well what and why things went so terribly wrong with Enron.
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James
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, detailed account of the Enron scandal
Reviewed in Australia on December 25, 2021
Verified Purchase
This outstanding, detailed and methodically researched book gives a blow by blow account of Enron in its glory days and Its eventual downfall. Highly recommend.
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