Posted on 06/27/2002 8:31:15 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
NEW YORK - The growing list of American corporations that have doctored their books or found other ways to cheat is quickly becoming a crisis for American capitalism. Continues.===========================================
Wall Street succumbs to the Clinton Malady
What's happening on Wall Street?
Barely a day goes by without another horror story of massive corporate fraud and corruption. In December, the flavor-of-the-month was Enron, the largest bankruptcy case in U.S. history. A month later, it was Global Crossing and the fourth-largest U.S. bankruptcy filing ever. In February, Tyco International was accused of hiding over $8 billion worth in acquisitions -- 700 in all. Financial irregularities last week drove the chief executive of Qwest Communications to resign. Tuesday night, Adelphia Communications, the cable TV industry's sixth largest company, filed for bankruptcy amid accusations of questionable accounting and Andersen-like bookkeeping.
And now -- WorldCom Inc., No. 2 U.S. long-distance provider. After an internal investigation, the company's board of directors reported uncovering billions of dollars in masked expenses/inflated profits. All told, nearly $4 billion -- $3 billion for '01, $797 million for '02 -- was illegally listed as capital outlays, according to the audit.
President Bush was livid, calling the news "outrageous", and vowing to bring the crooks to justice.
At a joint news conference, Bush told reporters on the opening day of the G-8 Summit in Canada that "we will fully investigate and hold all people accountable for misleading not only shareholders but employees as well."
Late Wednesday, the beleaguered company, based in Clinton, Miss., was hit with civil fraud charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In light of the wave of corporate accounting scandals, a question inevitably arises.
Was the much vaunted, grand-and-glorious 90s 'cornucopia' -- the dazzling growth rates, staggering profits, milk-and-honey, roll-in-riches opulence -- but a huge, mother-of-all corporate swindle, a colossal mirage, the product of phony bookkeeping, financial impropriety, shady accounting, business fraud, abracadabra, slight-of-hand?
'Hyperbole!', cry the "experts".
It would be -- knee-jerk, rhetorical overreaction, that is -- if from the myriad corporate fraud cases roiling the market of late, the 90s were dissed harum-scarum as Machiavelli shell-gaming, book-cooking, monkey-business -- and nothing more.
Yet, look at the backdrop of that era: The runaway sleaze, scandal-a-week Clinton (mal) administration. As fish rots from the head down, so the vulgar, rot and decay -- the squalid, seedy, tawdry, lawless malignity at the top trickled down the body-politic, its cesspool poison infecting corporate boardrooms and Wall Street itself.
Wall Street, in essence, succumbed to the Clinton malady.
To corporate crooks, Der Schlickmeister was a role model to emulate.
To bandits and thieves, Clinton was a hero to cheer.
To pilferers and con-men, X42 was an idol devoutly admired.
To rip-off artists and bilkers, to fleecers and cheats, Clinton was a superstar, an icon to laud, to cherish.
When moral squalor at the top is tolerated, even cheered, WorldCom, Enron, Global Crossing are the whirlwind reaped.
The Clinton era was marked by corruption, dishonesty, dishonor, treachery -- at the highest echelons: No-one should be surprised that societal corrosion resulted at many levels.
Moreover, Larry Kudlow, co-host of CNBC's popular 'Kudlow & Cramer', points to another factor possibly at work: The failure of the Clinton "Justice" Department to prosecute numerous corporate fraud cases during the latter half of the 90s.
"I think the authorities sent the wrong message", Kudlow told Hardball Wednesday night.
Kudlow: "Now [with Bush in the White House] you're going to see the toughest white collar crime prosecution we've seen in probably fifty or sixty years. But it's long over-due."
I can't say it often enough: Thank God the adults are now in charge.
Regarding Wednesday's other big story, the ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declaring unconstitutional America's Pledge of Allegiance -- yes, the same Pledge Americans have recited for almost fifty years: Folks, any lingering doubt about liberal intolerance of religion; that left-wingers are dimensions removed from reality; that lefties harbor nothing but contempt for our constitution, American tradition, history, culture and plain ol' common-sense; that liberals are hell-bent on excising all traces of faith from American life, imposing a Soviet-style form of government, this hideously deranged, utterly twisted decision should remove any such doubt.
The jackass ding-a-lings who whipped up this drool spout the following imbecility: "A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical ... to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus', a nation 'under Vishnu', a nation 'under Zeus', or a nation 'under no god' at all.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer shot back, pointing out that "the Supreme Court itself begins each of its sessions with the phrase 'God save the United States and this honorable Court.'" He added that the "Declaration of Independence refers to God or to the Creator four different times. Congress begins each session of the Congress each day with a prayer, and of course our currency says, 'In God We Trust'".
Circuit Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez, the court's lone dissenter, augured that patriotic songs like "America The Beautiful" and "God Bless America" will meet the same fate as The Pledge.
Tellingly, the court itself concedes that children aren't forced to recite The Pledge, anyway -- undermining the basis for the decision.
While the court en banc is likely to reverse the ruling and uphold a lower court decision to throw out the case, this red-meat is rife with political implications as we head into the fall campaign.
Democrats are especially nervous. Sensing vulnerability, Tom Daschle, the Senate's top Democrat, said the ruling was "nuts", despite pervasive hostility in his party towards all things religious. For lefties, rigid insistence on strict Church-State separation is an article of faith (pun intended).
On the Senate floor yesterday, Democrats joined Republicans in approving, 99-0, a resolution denouncing the court's decision, even requesting that Senate Counsel "seek to intervene in the case."
Will Democrats 'get away with it' -- this phony-baloney back-peddling?
Only time will tell.
One thing's for sure: Democrats needed this issue like they needed a hole in the head. They'd like it to go away -- but it isn't.
It can't. It won't.
Anyway, that's..
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Amen and amen.
Amen, Grampa
Precisely.
I nominate it for Quote of the Day.
Well said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.