How Enron Fooled Wall Street

In 2000, Enron was "America's Most Innovative Company" and worth more than $60 billion. Less than two years later, it was bankrupt, and thousands of employees lost their jobs and their retirement savings. This is how one accounting decision let a boring gas pipeline company fool Wall Street, and how the whole thing came crashing down. 0:00 Opening 0:51 The Pipeline Company 2:20 The Magic Number 3:31 The Smartest Guys in the Room 5:40 The Hidden Room 7:40 The Collapse 9:44 The Bill 📚 Sources • Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind, "The Smartest Guys in the Room" (2003) • Bethany McLean, "Is Enron Overpriced?", Fortune, March 5, 2001 • Enron Q3 2001 earnings release (Oct 16, 2001) and Form 8-K restatement (Nov 8, 2001), SEC EDGAR • Powers Report, Special Investigative Committee of Enron's Board (Feb 2002) • FERC staff reports on the 2000–2001 Western energy crisis • U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearings on Enron (2002) • Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696 (2005) • U.S. Department of Justice press releases on the Fastow, Skilling and Lay cases (2004–2006) ⚠️ This video is for educational purposes. Figures are rounded; where sources disagree, we use the most widely cited number. #Enron #FinanceHistory #WallStreet