The Enron Scandal

The documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is guaranteed to make you angry. It tells the story of just how it is that the company was able to make huge amounts of profits through swindling their employees. The film goes through how the company got started on its way to climbing to the seventh largest company in America and followed through to the company and its owners downfall.

It's hard to watch at parts knowing just what happens in the end for the company, but even harder to comprehend is that the dubious money laundering schemes started almost from the beginning. Kenneth Lay is horribly and rightfully depicted as a man hell bent on making money at any cost. In the end hoarding the retirement funds of employees to make profit off a dying company.

The most disturbing scenes in the film for me however weren't ones that covered the retirement fund scandal but rather those depicting fact that Enron knowingly fabricated the California energy crisis. When in fact there wasn't ever a shortage of power in California. Through various forms of media the film shows how the Enron traders shut down 30 percent and 50 percent of California's energy industry. Not only do they steel but they destroy.

After watching this film it's easy for me to say that Enron deserved what it got. I'm still a little surprised there isn't still talk about it and the possibility of something like it happening again.