Whilst I have read a lot about the Enron collapse and the subsequent litigation, I have just seen the movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.
The movie makes much of Enron's mark-to-market accounting system and the internal structures which enabled Enron to show large artificial profits. I did not know about (or had forgotten) their creation of a market for trading broadband surplus. The movie emphasises Lay and Skilling's arrogance and Lay's ties to the Bush family.
The movie was made before Andersen Consulting's successful appeal against their conviction and Chair Ken Lay's death after being convicted, before his appeal was heard.
In an article in the January 2007 New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell argues that Enron did not hide anything but that financial analysts took too long to understand the mass of information disclosed by Enron.
His interesting article poses the problem that regulators face: if consumers can't understand the information disclosed, is the disclosure adequate? Are long disclosure documents used to obfuscate investors? Is for example a 10 page disclosure document more helpful than a 100 page document? But what is left out in simplifying information for consumers?
.Everyone should have a love.Because love is pure.
Posted by: toryburch | January 21, 2011 at 01:54 PM