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The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

Book by Bethany McLean · 1 quotes · Decision Making, Economics, Greed

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The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron Quotes

“They believed that the market was the ultimate judge of their work and their worth. The market created a true meritocracy: you either made money because you made good trading decisions or you lost money because you made bad ones. Enron traders didn't concern themselves with ethics or morality apart from the unyielding judgment of the markets. Maximizing profit was not inconsistent with doing good, they believed, but an inherent part of it, and the judge of good and bad was the immediate consequence of a split-second trade. The highest compliment a trader could pay a colleague was to call him intellectually pure. The worst insult was to accuse someone of making a deal that wasn't economic.”

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Book:The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron
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