The Value Perspective with Bethany McLean

We’re very excited about our guest this week on the Value Perspective podcast. Bethany McLean is a financial journalist who was contacted by the short seller Jim Chanos when working for Fortune Magazine and advised to look into a company called Enron. Bethany’s column entitled ‘Is Enron overpriced?’ was published in 2001, starting the unravelling of the company and she went on to write a book entitled The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. She is also author of the titles Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the US Mortgage Giants, All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis, and Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It’s Changing the World. Bethany has also been working at Vanity Fair as a contributor for over a decade now and has pretty much covered all of the famous corporate frauds for the last twenty years. Her background is as a mathematician and she started her career at Goldman Sachs as part of their M&A department. Our conversation references a previous Value Perspective podcast with Carson Block, exploring the nature of the people who are committing these frauds; the difference between the visionary and the fraudster; what is needed on the other side of the ledger to uncover these frauds and withstand the pressure from believers; and finally the role of short sellers in today’s markets. Please enjoy.

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