Enron's Bankruptcy

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In the context that Enron executives were using it in this period, it was completely unfair analogy. They were like, oh, is merely a run on the bank? If people hadn't gotten spooked from those darn journalists and the short sellers writing that story, we would have been fine. And no, runs on the bank are an issue when the bank is being irresponsible. Because if the bank is runnable, there's a problem.

The FTX fraud has dominated headlines now for weeks, during which we’ve debated if and how Acquired could uniquely add to the conversation. Then we realized there was an angle so perfect that we had to drop everything and enter Acquired research overdrive: Enron. Travel back with us to the granddaddy fraud of them all, 2001’s then-largest bankruptcy in US history and the impetus for the famous Sarbanes-Oxley Act. So much of Enron’s history parallels FTX that the uncanniness is almost unbelievable — right down to the same CEO running the two bankruptcies. Sit back and enjoy this crazy tale of villainy, greed, and the nature of humans and money. Maybe just don’t take notes on this one…

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