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Article: New technology can help avoid a second Enron: the SEC needs reporting processes for the information age.(Accounting)(Securities and Exchange Commission)
- Article from:
- Regulation
- Article date:
- September 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Cato Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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TO SUGGEST THAT ENRON WAS JUST about a Houston company's accounting fraud is like suggesting the Cold War was just about the shooting down of Francis Gary Powers; it misses the big picture. Enron was about accounting and securities fraud, and bad corporate management, but it was about much more than that. It involved a systematic failure of America's institutions of capitalism.
Enron's management failed. Enron's board of directors failed. Enron's internal audit function failed. Enron's external auditors failed. Enron's attorneys failed. Enron's commercial and investment bankers failed. The credit rating agencies failed. Wall Street's securities analysts failed. ...