Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Review: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
****
It's a little known fact that Enron isn't dead. Well, not quite. It has a new acting CEO, its website is still up and there is a rescue plan and some progress. It may all, of course, just be a pipe dream.
Anyway ... Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a film that makes you wish nobody ever calls you smart. There are a lot of words that describe the people that ran Enron but this film makes it abundantly clear that the whole deal was a pack of cards, and should have been called a lot earlier.
The Enron fraud, or rather frauds because there were many, were not particularly smart and would not have worked outside of the crazy bubble economy of the late 1990s and early noughties.
There is a great moment in here where during a briefing an analyst asks why the company can't produce a balance sheet. A balance sheet for God's sake! CEO Jeff Skilling fluffs and then calls the guy an asshole.
They were indeed peculiar times.
There are many priceless moments in this film and Jeff Skilling, who dominates the stage, is truly a character of Shakespearean scale. He should be one of Shakespeare's villains but somehow you just feel sorry for him.
Included is a spoof film he made, introducing his new theory of accounting called HPV, for hypothetical future value. It would have been a rib tickler at the time, but in retrospect it's hilarious - as long as you didn't have any money in the company.
It is also clear Enron's corruption required broad support from bankers, analyst houses and many others who will get away scot free.
Another unique character is Lou L Pai, the stripper-addicted CEO of Enron Energy Services, who left the company early with at least US$353 million cash in hand to run off with a showgirl and buy half of Colorado.
But most unbeleivable of all are the tapes of Enron's energy traders gaming the market and creating the power crisis that gave us Governor Schwarzenegger. I must have missed these tapes at the time but they are a revelation of what can happen if deregulation isn't done properly. Energy traders who can shut down power plants, export energy out of the state during blackouts and make a squillion give a whole new meaning to the term "free market".
An extract:
Employee 1: "He just fucks California. He steals money from California to the tune of about a million."
Employee 2: "Will you rephrase that?"
Employee 1: "OK, he, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day."
In anticipation of George W Bush winning the election, this exchange:
Employee1: "It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy."
Employee 2: "When this election comes Bush will fucking whack this shit, man. He won't play this price-cap bullshit."
When then Governor Gray Davis asked the federal energy regulator to cap prices during the crisis, his request was refused.
Enron: The smartest Guys in the Room is a terrific documentary and surprisingly funny.
****
It's a little known fact that Enron isn't dead. Well, not quite. It has a new acting CEO, its website is still up and there is a rescue plan and some progress. It may all, of course, just be a pipe dream.
Anyway ... Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a film that makes you wish nobody ever calls you smart. There are a lot of words that describe the people that ran Enron but this film makes it abundantly clear that the whole deal was a pack of cards, and should have been called a lot earlier.
The Enron fraud, or rather frauds because there were many, were not particularly smart and would not have worked outside of the crazy bubble economy of the late 1990s and early noughties.
There is a great moment in here where during a briefing an analyst asks why the company can't produce a balance sheet. A balance sheet for God's sake! CEO Jeff Skilling fluffs and then calls the guy an asshole.
They were indeed peculiar times.
There are many priceless moments in this film and Jeff Skilling, who dominates the stage, is truly a character of Shakespearean scale. He should be one of Shakespeare's villains but somehow you just feel sorry for him.
Included is a spoof film he made, introducing his new theory of accounting called HPV, for hypothetical future value. It would have been a rib tickler at the time, but in retrospect it's hilarious - as long as you didn't have any money in the company.
It is also clear Enron's corruption required broad support from bankers, analyst houses and many others who will get away scot free.
Another unique character is Lou L Pai, the stripper-addicted CEO of Enron Energy Services, who left the company early with at least US$353 million cash in hand to run off with a showgirl and buy half of Colorado.
But most unbeleivable of all are the tapes of Enron's energy traders gaming the market and creating the power crisis that gave us Governor Schwarzenegger. I must have missed these tapes at the time but they are a revelation of what can happen if deregulation isn't done properly. Energy traders who can shut down power plants, export energy out of the state during blackouts and make a squillion give a whole new meaning to the term "free market".
An extract:
Employee 1: "He just fucks California. He steals money from California to the tune of about a million."
Employee 2: "Will you rephrase that?"
Employee 1: "OK, he, um, he arbitrages the California market to the tune of a million bucks or two a day."
In anticipation of George W Bush winning the election, this exchange:
Employee1: "It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy."
Employee 2: "When this election comes Bush will fucking whack this shit, man. He won't play this price-cap bullshit."
When then Governor Gray Davis asked the federal energy regulator to cap prices during the crisis, his request was refused.
Enron: The smartest Guys in the Room is a terrific documentary and surprisingly funny.
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