Character driven and meticulously researched, Smartest Guys in the Room sheds light into Enron’s shady past. Taking the reader behind the closed doors of private meetings and using a wide variety of reliable sources, the book follows Enron from its startup days to its rise to the top of the business world, and then to its catastrophic demise. It reveals major characters such as Ken Lay, and Andy Fastow as never before, but also looks at players like Cliff Baxter and others who aren’t as well-known.
This book paints a picture of deceit, greed, and arrogance—a miniature of all that is wrong with American corporations in our day and age. Smartest Guys in the Room is a fascinating drama, in which human emotions and relationships unfold.
There were tens of books about Watergate, but only one that gave readers the full story – All the President’s Men. Decades later, that’s still the only book to read if you want to know the truth about Watergate. Enron is now the biggest business story of our time, and writers Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean are the new Bernstein and Woodward.
Enron was seen as an epitome of a great New Economy company only two years ago, with its skyrocketing share price and profits. Then, an article asking a simple question was published: How does the company actually make its money? Enron’s house of cards started crumbling from that point on. Elkind and McLean have delved into the scandal to offer the truth about the fascinating people behind it.
