This documentary blew my mind and shocked me. Somehow I never cease to be amazed at the level of arrogance and utter inhumanity to which human beings are capable of falling. And for some reason, I am stunned each time I hear about the next huge business scandal, though by now I would have thought I'd be used to them, even expecting them.

For anyone living in a closest, this documentary covers the rise and fall of Enron, an enormous business tied to the deregulation of enery markets in the early 2000s and the creation of energy trading (think of trading units of energy the way stocks are traded on a stock exchange). 

Enron was a company built on smoke and mirror accounting practices, a house of cards that eventually collapsed, taking with it Arthur Anderson, the largest accounting consulting company in the world (at that time).

Before the collapse, all the big boys at the top dipped their ladels in the honeypot to make sure they got their payout before leaving all the front-line, rank-and-file workers high and dry. The non-executive workers lost their livelihoods, their pensions, their retirement plans - everything.

Oh, and before the collapse, the arrogance of the guys on the energy market trading floor  included manufacturing the rolling blackouts that hit California. There was never a lack of power necessitating rolling blackouts to save energy. There was merely the illegal manipulation of the markets by the traders to increase their incomes. These guys even went so far as to call powerplants in California and request full shutdowns under false pretenses to cause the impression of a lack of power as a way to increase the cost of energy, thereby increasing the market position of the traders. Amazing!

I am super impressed with the level of detail and careful reported done over the course of this documentary. The creators did an excellent job of laying out a complex series of events and information in a way that I found easy to follow. 

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a documentary well worth taking the time to watch. You will be amazed at our fellow humans are willing to do when greed and narcissism takes hold of the psyche.

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