— Live from the WTC has some interesting remarks in the accounting scandals:
A brief survey of left and right accounting-savvy people I know shows that every single one of them wants reform, and none of them have the faintest clue as to how to implement it.
I’ve now heard Democrats blaming Bush’s allegiance to his fat-cat oil company buddies for all of this, as well as Republicans blaming Clinton’s flimsy morals. Let’s get real: these things happened on Clinton’s watch, and he had the same incentives working for him that the accountants had working for them, a need to create the illusion of a strong economy. My take on all of this is that we need to enforce existing law, which should be obvious. If we do that, and it doesn’t work, then we can look for more onerous remedies.
The odd part of this business is that it makes bean-counters look kind of glamorous, like the dope dealers of the 21st Century, living large outside the law. Who woulda thought?