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

The tenth-anniversary edition of the definitive account of the Enron scandal, updated with a new chapter
 
The Enron scandal brought down one of the most admired companies of the 1990s. Countless books and articles were written about it, but onlyThe Smartest Guys in the Roomholds up a decade later as the definitive narrative. For this tenth anniversary edition, McLean and Elkind have revisited the fall of Enron and its aftermath, in a new chapter that asks why Enron still matters. They also reveal the fates of the key players in the scandal.“The best book about the Enron debacle to date.”
—BusinessWeek
 
“The authors write with power and finesse. Their prose is effortless, like a sprinter floating down the track.”
—USA Today
 
“Well-reported and well-written.”
—Warren BuffettBethany McLeanandPeter Elkindcollaborated on this book when they both wereFortunesenior writers. McLean, a former investment banking analyst for Goldman Sachs, is now a contributing editor toVanity Fairand lives in Chicago. Elkind, an award-winning investigative reporter, is now an editor-at-large forFortuneand lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

On a cool Texas night in late January, Cliff Baxter slipped out of bed. He stuffed pillows under the covers so his sleeping wife wouldn’t notice he was gone. Then he stepped quietly through his large suburban Houston home, taking care not to awaken his two children. The door alarm didn’t make a sound as he entered the garage; he’d disabled the security system before turning in. Then, dressed in blue jogging slacks, a blue T-shirt, and moccasin slippers, he climbed into his new black Mercedes-Benz S500 and drove out into the night.
 
At 43, John Clifford Baxter, the son of a Long Island policeman, had made it big in Texas. Before quitting hisl£Í