Explanation

Liquidity risk was indeed a common attribute in both the Enron and London Whale failures:

Enron (2001):

• Enron's collapse was primarily due to massive accounting fraud and off-balance-sheet entities that hid enormous debt
• When the fraud was uncovered, Enron faced immediate liquidity crisis as creditors demanded repayment and counterparties refused to trade
• The company couldn't access funding to meet its obligations, leading to bankruptcy

London Whale (2012):

• JPMorgan's London-based trader Bruno Iksil ("the London Whale") built massive credit derivatives positions
• When the trades started losing money, the positions became too large and illiquid to unwind without massive losses
• The bank faced significant liquidity risk as it couldn't exit the positions without incurring huge losses

Both cases demonstrate how operational risk (fraud at Enron, poor risk management at JPMorgan) ultimately manifested as liquidity crises when the problems were discovered and market confidence evaporated.