Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a smartly-created documentary about the upheaval at Enron. It shows the grim reality of power and corruption and further instills the need for tighter controls on corporate America.

The viewer is shocked at the extent to which the CEOs and leaders of Enron trifled in the workings of illegitimate business. Their geniusness led them to seek loopholes never realized by government or law. They bent the numbers to create ever-increasing revenue without ever having to prove actual profit. Based on fake numbers, the company's stock price raised steadily and seemingly without end. As the corruption continued, they found more and more ways of creating money from nothing. They even had a hand in the California rolling blackouts of the early 2000's. Here's an article written in 2001 about these events. At the time, a "population boom" was to blame. However, the movie shows that these blackouts were unneccessary and merely contrived by Enron. By randomly shutting down power plants, Enron increased the price of energy so the company could sell it back to California at this new, higher price. Being a California resident, this hits close to home. I am appalled, especially since such blackouts cost the state millions of dollars.

There are so many interesting facts given in this documentary. Definitely rent the movie. It will make you think twice about big business and question its honesty. Any company could be the next Enron.

I give this movie 4 potatoes.