WorldCom announced last night that they had overstated earnings over the past TWO years by ALMOST 3.8 BILLION dollars. As expected the CEO is “shocked” and had “no idea.” He should be fired. If I, as President of my fraternity, DON’T know that my VP of Finance is lying about finances I would be ousted in a second. For those of you wondering what GAAP stands for it means “Generally Accepted Accounting Practices” and is taught in all low level accounting classes that any worthy business school graduate has to take. Today’s widespread disregard for business ethics is making me lean towards NOT investing in the market.
I have to write a paper on the ethics of GAAP. I was curious if you had more information on this topic.