Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
2005 · Film · documentary · 110 min
Directed by Alex Gibney
A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
25 positive10 neutralfrom 35 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
37 comments on Hacker News
> this is at a level of economics that most people (myself included) can't really comprehend, I highly doubt leaders in Finance would invest such large sums if they didn't have a comprehensive forecast of all eventualities, let's also not forget that they do have access to many predictive modeling, data, tools... that the general public can't access
I would recommend to watch the documentary „Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room“.
For those too young for Enron, watch the documentary "The smartest guys in the room" :)
> Naturally, there's no market for this stock, which, in Uber-land, means you can assign any value you want to it. So that one quarter, Uber just asserted that the stock had shot up in value and voila, profit!
Reminds me of the Enron internal video where Jeffrey Fastow invents pretty much the same accounting trick. Watch "The Smartest Guys in the Room" again to see it. Bonus points if you catch the Trump Organization mention in the movie too.
> has generally ended badly
For a good example, watch the documentary:
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Reminds me of Enron “oh you just don’t get it” line. Now they were committing fraud not css but when I look at that “mess” of classes the author published that was my first thought. He just doesn’t get this revolution tailwind has started. That mess is actually MORE maintainable than clever classes that do more than one thing.
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/13020-enron-the-smartest-guys-in-the-room
Inside job. The smartest guys in the room. Two excellent documentaries. One about the financial crisis two about the fall of Enron.
> Netflix had considered offering movies online, but there were speeds and bandwidth problem in mid-2000.
One of the more interesting things I learned from the (outstanding) documentary "Enron - The Smartest Guys in The Room" [0] was that Enron planned an online movie streaming service together with Blockbuster in the late 90ies (to start in 2000), but failed for the same reasons.
> Enron would store the entertainment and encode and stream the entertainment over its global broadband network. Pilot projects in Portland, Seattle and Salt Lake City were created to stream movies to a few dozen apartments from servers set up in the basement. Based on these pilot projects, Enron went ahead and recognized estimated profits of more than $110 million from the Blockbuster deal, even though there were serious questions about technical viability and market demand [1]
But of course Enron "pivoted" to outright fraud some years before that.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyMz1V-GSg
[1] https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/089533003765888403
curious you mention that -- please refer to the popular movie "The Smartest Guys in the Room" or the book upon which it is based.. you can thank TX
It’s hard to answer completely because it varies by municipality and I’m not an expert. But the public utility commission does regulate quite a bit, potentially ranging from where a utility can build, how much renewable sources they must have, how much they can charge, etc.
In exchange, the utility can essentially be guaranteed that competitors will not be allowed to enter the market. In the past few decades, there has been more movement towards deregulated markets but not without issues. (See the documentary “The Smartest Guys in the Room” if you aren’t already familiar with the story of Enron).
I’d also recommend The Smartest Guys in the Room (and the documentary based on the book)
[0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/113576.The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
What do you think of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room[0]? It's one of my favorite documentaries. I've watched it about a dozen times probably. Dirty Money[1] shares a creator (Alex Gibney) [2] with Smartest Guys, and I also really like that.
Over the weekend I watched American Factory[3]. It may be my new favorite. I don't know if I will watch it as much as Smartest Guys, just because of the storytelling in that.
I like these because they clearly represent different viewpoints. Most documentaries feel like propaganda, and these don't feel that way to me.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Money_(2018_TV_series)
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Gibney
3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Factory
In fact Bethany McLean was a key player in bringing Enron down - which at the time was named the most admired company in America (6 years in a row!). Virtually no one was questioning their black box of profits.
But then a stock investor tipped her off that Enron's numbers didn't make sense. She started investigating and wrote an article, "Is Enron Overpriced?"[1]. That was the first domino.
Here's a clip about that from "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room". A fascinating documentary and cautionary tale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaZOIAJJ6Kk
1) https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2001/03/05/297833/index.htm
She wrote 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room' subsequently made into an excellent film. I suspect we will be seeing 'Tesla: The Smartest Guys in the Room' soon. It still rankles me that Nicolai Tesla's name is associated with all this.
Ctrl+F "Enron" - I was surprised not to see it mentioned with respect to blackouts in the US. They had a huge role in California's blackouts in 2000-01. [0]
The story of Enron is fascinating, and there's a great documentary on it, "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room". [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron#California's_deregulation_and_subsequent_energy_crisis
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
The Venus Project: Future By Design - By Jacque Fresco. Introduced Jacque Fresco's philosophy, R.I.P., and also the empathy we must have in designing something that is good for the planet and for the future. I highly recommend.
Mike Maloney's "Hidden Secrets of Money" is a beautiful set of YouTube documentaries financed by Mike himself. It educated me and millions out there how money really worked in the real world, and how the Federal Reserve and banking manipulates currency. https://goldsilver.com/hidden-secrets/
The Corporation - When Corporations started to get the same rights and treatment as regular citizens, we have created a monster that have changed our world for the worst.
The Cove and Blackfish. Really sad and made me stay away from Sea World and circuses and places that held animals in captivity for entertainment.
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara - The 11 lessons are worth learning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room/Inside Job - When corporations are run by sociopaths.
An Inconvenient Truth - Global warming.
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel/Bill Cunningham New York - Learned so much about creativity and just being true to your unique self regardless of what the world thinks.
Zeitgeist - Esoteric knowledge.
I agree, The Big Short was insightful and you come out of it with a better understanding of the financial industry. The Wolf of Wall Street glossed over the financial information to focus on the debauchery, which to me is far less interesting.
Boiler Room and The Smartest Guys in the Room are my other go-to business movies.
I recommend Smartest Guys in the Room to anyone who mentions documentaries in my presence! One of my all time favorites too.
Kinda, but I think it's small potatoes compared to the scale of Enron and the amount of damage they did.
In any case, would love to see the folks who made the Enron documentary ("smartest guys in the room") make one about Theranos.
Reading the theranos story, what’s going on in the political spectrum today, watching the steps people seem to have taken to get where they are to influence the society and then seemingly failing at it, I am always reminded of the documentary “Enron, the smartest guys in the room”. It’s such a simple idea that likely one thing led to another and they have climbed a ladder to defraud investors and tried to cause public harm. Those first steps were maybe of good intentions or maybe of bad ones. But somewhere along the way, they clearly created a bubble of their own where they assured themselves that it’s ok what they are doing. Never lose the outside reference point. Never.
Recommended watching: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
"The Smartest Guys in the Room" is a fantastic documentary about the whole ordeal. It's not too information dense so you probably want other resources. It's a very good low-effort primer that will leave you with a "what the f*?!" look on your face for the rest of the week.
There is a super good movie about Enron named 'The smartest guys in the room', highly recommended.
In the documentary 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room', it mentioned that the company had a "rank-and-yank" system, whereby annually everyone would rank everyone else. Those ranked in the top 10% would be promoted, and those in the bottom 10% would be let go. One guy commented "I don't know a successful company that fires 10% of its employees every year".
It certainly didn't help that Eliot Spitzer's political career imploded months before the financial crisis hit. It's impossible to know what he might have done -- either as governor or in some investigatory/prosecutorial role after his term. But it's also hard to imagine him remaining on the sidelines on this issue if his own dumb hubris hadn't taken him out of the game.
Edit: if any of you have seen Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, the same filmmaker also made a documentary to explore Spitzer's downfall with regard to the financial crisis:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/27/eliot-spitzer-wall-street-fallen-angel
They actually talked pretty extensively about this in the documentary "The Smartest Guys in the Room". I just remember watching with my jaw on the floor wondering why an organization would pit employees against each other like that.
The fact MS continued to adhere to it after Enron's collapse is stunning.
"...a small but increasingly vocal group of ex-Enron employees" This 'group' consists of two people who's reputation is tied to Enron's demise.
Most of the people reading this article will have seen the thoroughly researched 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room'. I don't think anyone who's seen that documentary is going to be swayed by a couple of consultants crying foul.
Have you seen the movie with the subtitle "the smartest guys in the room"?
I'm not sure I agree with you. Maybe they wouldn't be stealing laptops but instead be defrauding an entire state...
Thanks for the support. Clearly I have yet to master the paradigm of "adding value" that classifies it's increasingly clear that groupon is essentially a ponzi scheme with some graphic design. can't wait for the post mortem documentary a la "the smartest guys in the room" as more valuable than my comment. Will continue to try and adapt to the local culture.
it's increasingly clear that groupon is essentially a ponzi scheme with some graphic design. can't wait for the post mortem documentary a la "the smartest guys in the room".
"Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room" seconded! It is by far my most favourite documentary.
In addition, I like the following documentaries:
- "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638362/
- "Planet Earth" IMHO one of BBC's best productions with some of the most amazing nature shots ever (e.g., a [presumably stratospheric] shot that looks like fog or fire but is really a swarm of flies) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0795176/
- BBC has also two of the best documentary series regarding the second world war: "The World at War" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071075/) and "The Nazis: A Warning from History" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0207907/)
- Errol Morris' "The Thin Blue Line" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096257/) and "The Fog of War" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317910/)
Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room
March of the Penguins (2005) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_the_Penguins
Code Rush (2000) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Rush
Losers and Winners (2006) http://www.losers-and-winners.net/index_en.htm Documentary about the dismantling of a German coking plant, the most modern in the world, by Chinese workers in 2003, who shipped the plant to China and built several clones of it there. The plant was sold to China for a minor sum when the steel price was at an all time low and politicians believed the price would stay there. The steel price has since skyrocketed.
Weltmarktführer (2004) http://www.weltmarktfuehrer-derfilm.de/ Excellent documentary about the rise and fall of IT-startup Biodata and its founder Tan Siekmann during the dotcom boom and bust, alas only available in German.
You're correct. I think they described this process in the documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room" . I remember in interviewers with traders there that this was one pretty motivating factor for a lot of the corners that were cut at the company.
Even if you didn't care about learning business through film, I would recommend these. Most are classics and highly enjoyable. I left out the great ones already mentioned.
Risky Business - going from idea to execution in a very short time
High Fidelity - small business, vertical expansion, labor relations
There Will Be Blood - "I have a competition in me."
Office Space - process reengineering, efficiency, employee motivation
It's A Wonderful Life - customer service, community building, ethics
The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit - work life balance
The Player - handling office and industry politics
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room - ethics (and the catastrophe that befalls those without them)
I would just like to point out that Enron pushed for deregulation and always blamed government regulation of the market for the huge price rise that followed the deregulation, even though it was made on purpose by their corporation. Check out this documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the..., it's nice to learn from history. I agree that government regulation can be as dangerous as out of control police force, but libertarians (similar to communists) are completely oblivious (sometimes on purpose) of how absurd their idealistic word is and lack basic understanding of human nature. It's better to have an open, accountable, public police force than nothing at all.
You're just like Enron that always blamed government regulation of the market. Check out this documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room, it's nice to learn from history. I agree that government regulation can be as dangerous as out of control police force, but libertarians (similar to communists) are completely oblivious (sometimes on purpose) of how absurd their idealistic word is and lack basic understanding of human nature.
Aren't they shutting down the analog TV network in the US and re-using the spectrum elsewhere, per the rest of the world? And aren't most networks happy with more channels and more chances to grab ad-revenue? Surely that would spurn the adoption of HD more than a particular competitor being first of the boat.
But I have heard of Good Night, and Good Luck, and perhaps the other film, if you mean the Enron documentary (The Smartest Guys in the Room). Those, and reinventing a sports team would be achievements of which I would be very proud.
HD Net was the first all high definition television network, and is what helped spur all the mainstream networks (due to competition and audience response) to go HD. Cuban was on the HD bandwagon when it was empty. Haha he certainly didn't invent the Mavericks, but he completely transformed them & more importantly, made them a contender - much to the admiration of hundreds of thousands of Dallas Mavericks fans.
MicroSolutions was bought by CompuServe who you may or may not be familiar with. Have you heard the movies titled: The Smartest Guys in The Room or Good Night, and Good Luck? He was behind them.
I certainly get what you're saying, it's just that sometimes Cuban is wrongly portrayed as a one-trick pony. Also of note, I had never heard of lastminute.com until today. And even if i had, I doubt I'd know the person behind it.