"WorldCom's meltdown dwarfed Enron's in nearly every way. The frauds were much larger, many more people lost their jobs, and the loss to investors was also greater. Over $175 billion in equity value, three times what was lost in the Enron bankruptcy, disappeared as WorldCom disintegrated." (103)

The author assumes that the readers know what Enron was. Enron was an electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper company. By the end of 2001, it was revealed that it had been involved in accounting fraud and systemic corruption. So, the author assumes that the reader has some basic knowledge of the history of companies during 2001, to be able to truly understand and compare the magnitudes of the frauds that were happening.