The movie was called "Enron; The Smartest Guys in the Room" and we got it from Netflix. It is a documentary and unravels in sad detail how corporate greed led to (at the time) the largest bankruptcy in history.
It was rated "R" by the way and I thought gee, that's odd for a documentary. And it didn't say why either, like graphic violence, strong language, etc. as I've seen on other films. There was some colorful language in the taped phone calls to be sure but nothing like "Goodfellas". By the end though I think I figured out why Hollywood felt it should be restricted from children without their parents present: the "R" is because it's about corrupt business practices and dirty politics.
You see Enron, like any smart company, had or bought friends in Washington and in all localities where its operations would benefit from governmental help. This extended right into the Bush White House and the film had embarrassing photos and audio clips of a grinning President patting the CEO on the back.
Jeffery Skilling was Bernie Madhoff 18 years ago and built an empire based on the same evil principles. He lied, he cheated, he manipulated his way into the Fortune 500 and most of all he and Kenneth Lay promoted this package as the company's corporate policy.
By the time they were exposed by a whistle-blower the floor traders who essentially ran the company were bragging to each other on recorded phone calls about how they engineered the energy crisis in California. One call urged a power plant supplying the state to find an excuse to shut down for a time to drive up the price of electricity while another cried "burn, baby burn!" when a wildfire forced a power company to reduce the power load on its high voltage lines.
The well-respected accounting firm of Arthur Anderson it turns out had "cooked" Enron's books and successfully fooled Wall Street, the government, and Enron's stockholders that things were better than they really were.
Of course we are jaded now and this tale would not shock anyone. The economic downturn has suggested that greed has become the corporate culture of our world. Hedging, lying, stealing, concealing, bribing____all and more of these practices were exposed in the behavior of the big banks and investment companies. And we still gave them money. "We" being an interesting term now.
As one wag said in so many words, but why should we be surprised? Empires rose and fell because of all of these behaviors. Perhaps, he went on to say, perhaps people are just like that. Maybe it's just a matter of scale and publicity . . . bigger scandals and more press coverage make todays expose's seem more shocking when in fact they may be the routine way of doing business now.
I guess if he's right that we just need to get used to it. Survival of the fittest so to speak. Everybody on their own and may the best win. Darwin in the 21st century. But I'm not ready to go there yet. Surely honest, hard-working politicians and corporate heads outnumber these crooked few.
Don't they?
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