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The Smartest Guys in the Room

I went to see the new Enron movie last night with Bryan and Judy. Wow. That Jeffrey Skilling guy is a jerk! The scariest part of the film was the indepth examination of Enron’s corporate culture - a win at all cost, show no mercy, personal responsibility be damned, conflict of interest insider tradefest that made up the numbers as they went, with absolutely no regard whatsoever for the naive, trusting shareholders whose lives were on a fast track to financial ruin.

While Ken Lay is probably the name most closely associated with the Enron scandal, it’s Skilling who really makes your skin crawl. The guy completely bought into the whole “survival of the fittest” philosophy, and his attitude filtered into the behavior of his traders in a very real way. It was quite shocking to listen to the recorded telephone conversations of several Enron traders laughing amongst themselves and counting their profits while California burned under the intense heat of one of the worst power outages ever. Seriously, these guys are creepy!