Book & podcast collection

The Smartest Guys in the Room

byBethany McLeanandPeter Elkind

Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind reconstruct the rise and collapse of Enron, revealing how celebrated innovation concealed accounting manipulation, conflicted incentives, and a deeply corrosive corporate culture. Drawing on documents and extensive reporting, they follow executives, traders, bankers, auditors, analysts, and employees as warning signs accumulated. The book explains the financial structures behind the fraud without losing sight of the personalities and ambitions that sustained it. More than a chronicle of one company, it is a study of how prestige, complexity, groupthink, and short-term rewards can overwhelm skepticism throughout an entire business ecosystem.

Publisher

Penguin Publishing Group

Publication date

2003

Format

Print edition

Pages

464

ISBN

9780141011455