Rating: 
Summary: An interesting story about Enron, but was that the point?
Review: This book is on the surface about how two Wall Street Journal reporters broke the stories that were part of the amazing collapse of Enron. In just 24 days the company went from an investment hot spot, to bankruptcy. This book is supposedly about just what happened to bring on this decline. However, there are three layers to this story and the book is not what it seems. The first layer is about the events themselves. The second layer is about the role of the journalists, and the third layer is about what happened in our society to allow this to take place.
Regarding the depictions of the events, the book does a good job at describing the revelations, financial statements, and spin control that gradually exposed the towering revenues of Enron to be little more than creative accounting, and inter-company agreements that were carefully designed to give the illusion of revenues. On this sense the book is engaging and quite fascinating.
However it is the second layer, the reporters themselves, that are the real story here. Are they just reporting the news, or making it? It seems they are largely unaware about their own role. Namely, they had no idea what they were doing! Seriously, I lost count how many times one of the two commented that they had no idea what the complex financial statements from Enron actually meant. This didn't stop them from reporting on it though. Another look gives some of the disturbing motivations behind the "innocent" reporting:
"Though Emshwiller didn't mention it, he hoped that their stories had a role in Fastow's departure. It was one of those perversities on journalism that reporters sometimes took satisfaction from the woes of people they hardly knew, or had never met". (Page 158) "With a small pang of guilt, Emshwiller couldn't help hoping that if the guy was going to be laid off, it would come sooner than later". (Page 298) What these quotes, and dozens more like it, indicate is that at least for one of the reporters, he was more than a little biased, and tried to expose some issues for little more than his own glory. The only sense of humanity we see from these two comes from when Smith is talking to the widow of a former Enron executive who killed himself.
I found this element of this book disturbing. While these reporters were eventually correct, they often created a short term "run-at-the-bank" scenario that hurt the company BEFORE the facts were known. I would surmise that neither of these two reporters were aware of just how poorly they can be viewed through this book. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good I suppose.
The third layer of the story is about how our society allowed this corporate malfeasance to occur. Smith hits on it briefly in a statement about how Lay's comments about earnings and financial statements were "Clinton-esque", but they both avoid the bigger picture throughout the book. They seem content to grab as much personal glory for themselves as they can, and avoid the bigger and more difficult work of attempting to describe how our collective morality seemed to give way to greed in the early part of the 2000's.
Rating: 
Summary: Read The Smartest Guys in the Room
Review: This book is too tied to the authors and what they were doing versus what was happening at Enron that the authors were not covering. I really don't care where geographically the authors were when they were covering the story or if they had a deadline for the next issue of the WSJ. They also quote way too many "un-named sources" versus TSGITRoom book. TSGITRoom reads like a Thriller and 24 Days reads like someone's term paper. Get the other book and be ready to stay up late reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Read The Smartest Guys in the Room
Review: This book is too tied to the authors and what they were doing versus what was happening at Enron that the authors were not covering. I really don't care where geographically the authors were when they were covering the story or if they had a deadline for the next issue of the WSJ. They also quote way too many "un-named sources" versus TSGITRoom book. TSGITRoom reads like a Thriller and 24 Days reads like someone's term paper. Get the other book and be ready to stay up late reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Same Scandal...Different Perspectives
Review: This book will be especially valuable to those who have a keen interest in "the amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron." I also commend to their attention McLean and Elkind's The Smartest Guys in the Room. Whereas Smith and Emshwiller explored the same company as investigative reporters, McLean and Elkind seem (to me) to have approached their subject as corporate anthropologists. Both books reach many of the same (albeit somewhat tentative) conclusions as to what happened...and why. Two significant differences are that Smith and Emshwiller limit their attention primarily to a period in 2001 extending from October 16th (when Enron announced huge losses caused by two partnerships) to December 2nd (when Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy); McLean and Elkind cover a two-year period of the company's "amazing rise and scandalous fall." Also, McLean and Elkind devote far more attention to each of the "smartest guys"; Smith and Emshwiller seem less interested in them, except in terms of the impact of their mismanagement and corruption. Let's say there are two books about the collapse of the twin towers at the World Trade Center; one focuses on the human tragedies associated with it whereas a second book addresses design, construction, and structural issues. Obviously, both approaches are valid. In certain respects, this book reminds me of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's All the President's Men. In both, the reader is provided with a rigorous and comprehensive examination of the process by which investigative journalists generate, evaluate, and pursue leads, then tell a "story" based on the material they have accumulated. Smith and Emshwiller are the focal points in this book. Their reader feels as if she or he accompanies them each step of the way (at least I did) as they methodically probe ever more deeply into Enron's immensely complicated corporate infrastructure. As already suggested, their focus is less on the personalities of the deal makers than on the deals they made; also on how and why they were able to conceal various illegalities and improprieties long before December 3rd, 2001, when Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For me, one of the most interesting subjects which Smith and Emshwiller discuss is Arthur Andersen's association with Enron to which they devote several chapters. Given the nature and extent of Enron's financial implosion, what role did its longtime auditor play? And what about other reputable firms such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Merrill Lynch which were also centrally involved with Enron's senior managers as they methodically and relentlessly constructed what has since been called "a house of cards"? Smith and Emshwiller could not have possibly provided definitive answers to questions such as these when their book went to press. Perhaps those answers will not be fully revealed for years to come. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn what I did from this book. My personal preference, however, is for McLean and Elkind's The Smartest Guys in the Room because I have a greater interest in the who and why rather than the how and when. Nonetheless, I highly recommend both books and presume to suggest that 24 Days be read first.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting book, but fails to really exploit its strength
Review: This is a pretty decent book. It gives a fairly good overview of what went wrong with Enron and a fairly good look at the process the authors worked through in reporting on Enron for the Wall Street Journal. So, why don't I rate it a 5-star book? Mainly because it doesn't excel in either area. As an Enron story, it's far less revealing than "The Smartest Guys in the Room". As a book about what it's like to be reporters breaking a huge story, I think it fails to convey the sense of excitement and accomplishment they must have felt. So, in my opinion, they produced a good, interesting book that fell far short of its potential. My memory of the events unfolding around Enron's spectacular failure places The Wall Street Journal in a leading role in terms of pressuring the company to start to be more forthcoming in its public dealings. Surely there was a lot of intrigue and tension involved with being the reporters driving this story. But this book doesn't really give the reader a feeling about what that was like. Maybe it was as nearly routine as the feel of the book suggests, but I have to believe it was more gripping than that. And as far as telling the Enron failure story, this book gives a decent overview, but there are better chronicles of that story. So, was I disappointed that I read this book? No, it was pretty good. I just felt it could have been a lot more. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that writers for periodicals don't tend to write the best books. They're good at "just the facts, Ma'am" storytelling, but to deliver a really outstanding book, a writer has to be able to use the larger canvas to paint pictures that he can place the reader in. These authors don't do that and, I'd say that unless you're pretty interested in the Enron story, you could skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting book, but fails to really exploit its strength
Review: This is a pretty decent book. It gives a fairly good overview of what went wrong with Enron and a fairly good look at the process the authors worked through in reporting on Enron for the Wall Street Journal. So, why don't I rate it a 5-star book? Mainly because it doesn't excel in either area. As an Enron story, it's far less revealing than "The Smartest Guys in the Room". As a book about what it's like to be reporters breaking a huge story, I think it fails to convey the sense of excitement and accomplishment they must have felt. So, in my opinion, they produced a good, interesting book that fell far short of its potential. My memory of the events unfolding around Enron's spectacular failure places The Wall Street Journal in a leading role in terms of pressuring the company to start to be more forthcoming in its public dealings. Surely there was a lot of intrigue and tension involved with being the reporters driving this story. But this book doesn't really give the reader a feeling about what that was like. Maybe it was as nearly routine as the feel of the book suggests, but I have to believe it was more gripping than that. And as far as telling the Enron failure story, this book gives a decent overview, but there are better chronicles of that story. So, was I disappointed that I read this book? No, it was pretty good. I just felt it could have been a lot more. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that writers for periodicals don't tend to write the best books. They're good at "just the facts, Ma'am" storytelling, but to deliver a really outstanding book, a writer has to be able to use the larger canvas to paint pictures that he can place the reader in. These authors don't do that and, I'd say that unless you're pretty interested in the Enron story, you could skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: 24 Days: A Great Detective Story
Review: This is a terrific account of Enron's demise written like a detective novel. You watch the reporters uncover the story as Enron unravels. It's the business equivalent of All the President's Men.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific reporting on an important story
Review: This is a terrific book. It should be read by anyone who invests because it will give you a better understanding of not only the Enron case, but of the problem of corrupt executives playing fast and loose with their responsibilities to the investors who employ them. Remember, the investors own the company, not the executives. They are hired help who are supposed to look after the interests of those who have put up hard cash for stock in the corporation and who are taking the financial risk as residual claimants. (Of course, those taking risks include the employees who probably have retirement investments in the company). It is a lively read and provides a great deal of valuable information along with the intrigue and outrageous revelations. There are three story lines that flow like counterpoint. I found them riveting, but I enjoy reading about business. (You probably do as well, or why are you reading about this book?) First, we follow Rebecca Smith and John Emshwiller as they track down leads in developing news stories about the sudden resignation of Enron's young CEO, Jeff Skilling. This seemingly minor story develops into the amazing and unexpected collapse of Enron as its corrupt financial dealings and improper accounting practices are exposed. We also follow the race between the authors as reporters for the Wall Street Journal racing against the New York Times, the LA Times, and the national TV news programs to get the story out first. Second, we get the story of Enron and how Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and especially Andy Fastow worked hard to keep the true state of the company hidden from investors and regulators. We see how they drew others into their plans and punished those who wouldn't go along. The story makes clear how Andersen was brought down by an account team that allowed their lust for tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees to corrupt their accounting responsibilities. Third, we see how both the climb and collapse of Enron affected average and honest people just trying to do their jobs. It was easy to get caught up in the rise of Enron and to believe in what was going on because the sickeningly corrupt practices were kept hidden for so long. Some of these executives, who reaped untold millions in personal rewards, might argue that everything was disclosed as required by letter of the regulations. But it seems to me that it was all just a way of lying while going to the right up to the edge of violating the letter of the law and then slipping over. Enron and Andersen management ended up not being as slick as they thought and ended up destroying both companies and hurting tens of thousands of innocent folks. Another virtue of this books is that it is straight reporting. Rather than being advocacy journalism, it reports the facts of the case as they unfolded. I like this approach a great deal and think it strengthens the message of the book. You are free to make your own interpretation of the events presented. The authors do express their own reactions to certain events and revelations, but do not draw final conclusions of guilt or innocence. Nor do they try to apportion blame, although they do report comments and judgments of others who do. Really, I wish this book would be read widely because it would help potential investors realize the need they have to pay close attention to the management team of companies they choose to invest in. They also need to educate themselves as much as possible on the industries and accounting practices of not only the companies they invest in, but also their competitors. Such awareness can help set off the "something isn't right" detector. Unfortunately, when things appear to be going well hard questions are usually not asked and when things fall apart it is usually too late to start asking. This is a fine book that will have a permanent place on your shelf of business books.
Rating:
Summary: How Top Executives Destroyed Enron & Looted Billions
Review: This is another Enron book about all the greed that took place, about all the other companies that helped Enron get away with it and about top executives earning huge sums of money. Unfortunately, this will happen again and again until investors learn one lesson. Top executive pay needs to be tied to long term performance of the Company's stock and never to short term performance. Of course, at Enron almost everything was tied to the short term performance of the Company's stock which proves nothing and collapsed as a house of cards.
(Mt Laurel)
Rating:
Summary: Enron¿s collapse was inevitable
Review: Wall Street Journal journalists Rebecca Smith and John R. Emshwiller did not originally see Enron's looming disaster. They had long reported on the company's many trials and tribulations. Yet, they had no reason to suspect that Enron's top executives, some perhaps unwittingly, had essentially been running a criminal empire. To be blunt, Smith and Emshwiller were merely in the right place at the right time. This book concerns their diligent reporting after it became obvious that something was seriously wrong. Even so, it took them awhile to realize that Enron was rapidly heading towards bankruptcy. Enron's collapse was actually inevitable, but it wasn't obvious to those on the outside looking in. Heck, I live in the city where Enron is headquartered---and heard only only good things concerning this previously dominant business entity. The reader should pay particular attention to Andy Fastow. He was the beginning and end of the whole fiasco. Nothing financially questionable can occur without the full cooperation of the chief financial officer. The other players in this drama could at least pretend that they were unaware of Enron's ongoing shenanigans. This is indeed why the government prosecutors are having a difficult time charging others with criminal misbehavior. The latter might plausibly be able to claim that Fastow misled them. The authors provide ample evidence that for most the Enron situation was similar to a proverbial blindfolded person placing their hand on a elephant's leg. They still can't tell what type of animal it is until the blindfold is removed. Many small picture perspectives rarely add up to a vision of the big picture. Smith and Emshwiller show us a cultural milieu where asking hard questions was not encouraged. The money was flowing and the future looked bright. Why be a nuisance when it was usually better to look the other way? 24 Days may not be the final word on the Enron mess. That may not be available for another five years. Nonetheless, this book is a must buy. These WSJ reporters provide a disturbing look at corporate malfeasance. This may help us to prevent another Enron is the future.
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