Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Movie Review (2005)
According to The New York Times 2001 the company, having little cash to run its business, let alone to satisfy its enormous debts, Enron finally caved in. The film features interviews with McLean and Elkind, as well as former Enron executives and employees, stock analysts, reporters and the former Governor of California. So when you drove down Smith Street and caught sight of those nicotine addicts exiled to the sun-scorched pavement, the scene seemed to augur something new and advanced — a better way to live than that proffered by the old wildcatters who liked their whiskey, cigarettes and handshake deals. For me, this is a waste of time -- the aspect that needs to be addressed in the public debate is policy, not psychology. As it happened, Enron was also obligated to fulfill a number of forward contracts on Enron stock with an investment bank in an unrelated transaction.
The Smartest Guys in the Room: A Film About the Downfall of Enron
The introductory section has an interestingly arty edge, but after the opening credits, it relies almost entirely on the content to create its impact. I had been a Houstonian since 1976, and Ken Lay had emerged from the oil bust of the 80's as nothing less than a corporate visionary. Bush's connections to Ken Lay come under scrutiny by the press, which intensifies after Enron's collapse. Maybe Ken Lay will never be able to see himself for who he was, but by the time the jury took to their deliberations, most people in Houston felt they knew Ken Lay all too well. The Houston megachurch pastors testimony as a character witness for Lay contrasted sharply with that of Mike Muckleroy, who minutes later took the stand as a rebuttal witness for the government. Kevin Howard, broadband finance chief, is found guilty of conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering. Lay tended to shade the truth under pressure as a businessman; and here Mr.
Muckleroy left Enron in 1993 after a two-year battle with senior management over the questionable business practices of the parent company's upper management. I, for one, am still shaking my head in disbelief at this event, and I'm far from alone. It is best when it sticks to fact, shakier when it goes for visual effects and heavy irony. But however when Louis Borget and Thomas Mastroeni two oil traders were gambling beyond their means and threatened to bankrupt the company, Mike Muckleroy, oil and gas executive bluffed the Market and saved the company. The only real strike against him was that he had failed to stop the theft.
According to Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room on January 17, 2002 Enron fired Arthur Anderson as their auditor, demanding that they destroyed all documents. In hindsight, Enron was a corporation devoted to maintaining a high share price at any cost. Strange, that there has not been more anger over the Enron scandals. However, due to a lock-up provision, Enron was prohibited from selling its shares until December of 1999. Muckleroy said he was fired by Enron in the early 1990s for not being a team player.
The key to it all was the belief in deregulation. It was Skilling's idea to turn Enron from an energy producer into an energy trader: a parasitic middleman in other people's energy sales. And you can't reach out five years into the future and predict those earnings and put those on your balance sheet. It spends a fair amount of time on the process of how they got themselves steadily deeper into trouble, while the public saw nothing noticeably wrong and Wall Street still kept proclaiming them gods among men. . This branch was, for a time, a miniature of what the entire company would later become. July 23, 2003 -- California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announces that Davis will face a recall election.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) Watch on Netflix
But during the California crisis, even they could make big profits just by running power plants built by somebody else. The goal was to sell gas to the Russian markets, and link to Unocal's southern export pipeline crossing Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. It was hard to say. October 1987 Borget and Mastroeni end up on the wrong side of a massive trade, threatening to bankrupt the company. Specifically, the utility deregulation law signed by Governor Pete Wilson Republican, of course in 1996. For those who ascribe to the old saw holding that the personality of a company reflects the personality of the chief executive, well, the win-at-all-costs Ken Lay was there for all to see.
He is now experiencing the backlash that often hits outsider nonpoliticians who get into office by promising the moon. The documentary scored video footage of his sales pitch! Nevertheless, a fairly clear picture of what management was doing does indeed emerge. There is a general impression that Enron was a good corporation that went bad. My answer is that deregulation has two aspects. The Dow Jones industrial plummets 508, points, dropping 20.
Additional charges filed against Andrew Fastow. We promptly told Enron to correct it. Two vast staircases sweep up from either side of the trading floor to the aeries of Lay and Skilling, whose palatial offices overlook the traders. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will spend the week preparing for closing arguments, which will begin on May 15. I then turn to Harvey and Baudrillard as critical counterpoints on the commerce of fictitious. In Debt We Trust exposes and explains a system operating on borrowed money and borrowed time, and tells us that it is only a matter of time before the system completely collapses.
The Smartest Guys in the Room: A Film About the Downfall of Enron
Anderson was convicted of obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to the audit of Enron's account. Enron made its first visit to the Congressional scandal-investigation hot seat, and the two Valhallans got minimal sentences. See Enron Legal News at. In fact, any rational person with even limited experience in the markets would know that stock prices fluctuate— materially. So, the company could pick the assets that performed well to keep on the balance sheet, divest those that were underperforming, and book a gain.
It's also a scandal that the public has not really gotten worked up over. Fastow eventually pleads guilty in a deal that he will testify against his former coworkers in exchange for a reduced sentence, while Lay and Skilling plea innocent and spend tens of millions of dollars on. Soon after theatrical release, on October 13, 2005, an edited version of the film aired on the documentary series. To keep its stock price climbing, Enron created good quarterly returns out of thin air. Other business practices have been checked only by the relatively weak Sarbanes-Oxley act, which entrepreneurial moaners are now bitching involves an onerous amount of paperwork and over-regulation. They never mention, for instance, how Enron executive Thomas White -- who later turned out to be personally involved in the California thievery -- was appointed Secretary of the Army, and was retained in that post even after a storm of criticism.
