Bethany Lee McLean (born December 12, 1970) is an American journalist and contributing editor for '' Vanity Fair'' magazine. She is known for her writing on the
Enron scandal
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal sparked by American energy company Enron, Enron Corporation filing for bankruptcy after news of widespread internal fraud became public in October 2001, which led to the dissolution of its accounting ...
and the
2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
. Previous assignments include editor-at-large, columnist for ''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fate
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (19 ...
,'' and a contributor to ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
''.
Early life and education
McLean was born in
Hibbing, Minnesota
Hibbing is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was built on mining the rich iron ore of the Mesabi Iron Range an ...
on December 12, 1970. McLean graduated from
Hibbing High School
Hibbing High School is a public school, grades 7–12, in Hibbing, Minnesota, United States. It was built from 1920 to 1922 as the entire city relocated south to make way for the expanding Hull–Rust–Mahoning Open Pit Iron Mine, Hull–Rust†...
in 1988. In 1992 she received a B.A. in English and mathematics from
Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
.
Career
McLean started her career as an investment banking analyst for
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...
and joined ''Vanity Fair'' as a contributing editor in 2008. She began as a contributor to ''Slate'''s Moneybox column, in 2010 and "The Bulldog" column in ''Fortune''.
She authored an article on Enron for the March 5, 2001, issue of ''Fortune'' entitled, "Is Enron Overpriced?" The article noted some irregularities in Enron's financial documents that were available to the public, suggesting the company's then-record high stock price was unjustified but she did not at that point suspect fraud at Enron. After Enron's rapid collapse later in 2001, McLean co-authored, with Peter Elkind, the book '' The Smartest Guys in the Room'' (2003) which detailed the corrupt business practices of
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American Energy development, energy, Commodity, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was led by Kenneth Lay and developed in 1985 via a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both re ...
officials. The book was later made into the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
Overstock.com
Beyond, Inc. (formerly known as Overstock, Inc.) is an American internet retailer, online retailer that owns the "Bed Bath & Beyond" brand except for within Mexico and the "Overstock" brand, and runs online stores named with those brands. The M ...
Patrick M. Byrne after she wrote a negative article about Overstock and him.
She co-authored with
Joe Nocera
Joseph Nocera (born May 6, 1952) is an American business journalist and author. He has written for ''The New York Times'' since April 2005, writing for the editorial page from 2011 to 2015. He was also an opinion columnist for '' Bloomberg Opinio ...
a book on the 2008 financial crisis titled '' All the Devils Are Here''.
In September 2015, she published ''Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants'' which examines the governance and financial situation of
Fannie Mae
The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, is a United States government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and, since 1968, a publicly traded company. Founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New ...
and
Freddie Mac
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC), commonly known as Freddie Mac, is an American publicly traded, government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), headquartered in Tysons, Virginia.Luminary. She also joined the Capitalisn't ' podcast as a co-host in season 2, along with Chicago Booth Professor
Luigi Zingales
Luigi Zingales (; born 8 February 1963) is an Italian academic who is a finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His book '' Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists'' (2003) is a study of "relationship capitalism" ...
McLean married Chris Wilford in 2000 and divorced in 2006. In May 2008, she married attorney
Sean Berkowitz
Sean M. Berkowitz (born 1967) is a former director of the Department of Justice's Enron Task Force. He prosecuted former employees of Enron who were accused of white collar crimes, principally accounting fraud. Most significantly, he was the lea ...
, the former Director of the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
Enron Task Force. They divorced in 2020. McLean resides in Chicago with her children.
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...