"The Smartest Guys in the Room" was published in 2003, about the Enron Scandal of a couple of years earlier. It was the usual quickie 'be the first to cash in' on the scandal of the day. I seem to remember a book about the O.J. Simpson trial being published the next day. Of course that was easy enough, material collected and organized during the nearly year-long trial. (The other day a friend acerbically commented that the jury in that trial took as long as they did - five hours or so - to announce that they found the murderer not guilty because they wanted one more lunch on the taxpayers' dime. He may be right, but I digress.)

The Enron book was one only a handful, true crime writing pays much better. The Enron guys weren't even half smart. I knew it was going dowm a year or more before. I wasn't privy to any inside inforation, I just saw a failing business model and one mistake after another by people who didn't appear to know what they were doing. The guys running the company are almost never the smartest or anywhere close, unless they are Elon Musk or someone similar, who built the company. Once he's gone, things fall part sooner or later, and these days it's usually sooner.

That Sam Walton's heirs have not yet wrecked the company is a testament to his brilliance, and the team he built. It's still mostly on autopilot, and will last longer because of sheer size rather than vision.

Meanwhile those who fancy themselves the smartest are seemingly convinced that they are not in the same boat as Enron, ignoring the evidence. The consequences will be severe for the U.S. and much of the world if it is not stopped, but since part of the plan is to do as much damage as possible (and that most of them are delusional) 2024 may come too late. There is some hope but two years is a long time.

While the judge who couldn't answer even the most elementary legal questions at her confirmation hearing probably wreak damage in the courts at every opportunity, the current FAA admistrator diversity appointee will, if (as is likely) confirmed the damage will be less as the FAA, like Wal-Mart, will function reasonably well if the idiot in charge merely collects his pay and doesn't break anything.

At this point it believe the regime is a hybrid juvenocracy/moronocracy.










Text in the pics:

Politics is full of people who want to prove they're the smartest person in the room, but they never realize that the room they're in rarely has any really smart people in it.

Dominic Cummings

Links

---

Vox Popoli
Enak's HypCryme blog
MacArthur's Freehold
Community Hospital Corporation Plano Texas
A Dirty Rotten Shame
Victims of ACCH

Last updated: Sat 04 Mar 2023 09:14:50 PM CST : 1677986090