While Enron’s reported earnings were growing smoothly, the business didn’t seem to be generating much cash—and you can’t run a business without cash. In fact, Enron had negative cash from its operations in the first nine months of 2000. (It was impossible to analyze the full year because Enron released an income statement only when it announced earnings—not a balance sheet or a cash-flow statement. Only when the report was filed with the SEC a month or so later could anyone really dig through the numbers. This soon became a huge issue.)
