The New York Times Who Really Cooks the Books?
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"C.E.O.'s want to be respected and believed. They will be -- and should be -- only when they deserve to be. They should quit talking about some bad apples and reflect instead on their own behavior.

Recently, a few C.E.O.'s have stepped forward to adopt honest accounting. But most continue to spend their shareholders' money, directly or through trade associations, to lobby against real reform. They talk principle, but, for most, their motive is pocketbook."

Salon A fool's paradise for CEOs

"But the Scott McNealys of the world, considered generically, have for at least a decade thrived as heads of a fool's paradise, installing regimes of benign neglect in which ignorance and self-delusion regarding the quality of their products has often gone hand in hand with the inflation of earnings via accounting chicanery.

At the moment getting a handle on both sorts of corporate self-deception is not only "in the shareholders' interest"; it's arguably also the most important function a CEO can perform for the stockholders."

The Washington Post Stigmatizing Business

"Over the past few weeks, in reaction to a series of corporate scandals, the pendulum of public feeling has swung from celebrating business executives as the architects of economic growth to condemning them as a group of untrustworthy, venal individuals."

"I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. Other honest, hard-working and capable business leaders feel similarly demoralized by a political climate that has declared open season on corporate executives and has let the faults, however egregious, of a few taint the public perception of all. This just at a time when their combined energy and concentration are what's needed to reinvigorate our economy."

Business Week Read Any Good Business Ethics Books?

"Executives seeking counsel on how to restore citizens' trust in Corporate America won't find much help at the local bookstore. A survey of business-book publishers by BusinessWeek Online found few titles in the area of business ethics. Nor does there appear to be any rush to offer new titles that would help managers understand and respond to the crisis of confidence stemming from the collapse of Enron, Arthur Andersen, Global Crossing, and WorldCom."

redux [07.09.02]
The Economist The backlash against business

"Karlyn Bowman, an observer of social trends at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), argues there has been no break in the overall pattern of attitudes to business as a whole. For the past 20 years, 55-65% of the country has expressed "some confidence" in those running big businesses; 10-25% express a great deal of confidence. The numbers are now towards the lower end of those ranges--a decline in confidence, but no backlash against business.

Is the current business-bashing in Washington just a short-term craze?"

The Washington Post Sleaze and the Slump

"The WorldCom scandal is the latest building block in a new economic mythology. By the old mythology, the Internet and the "new economy" promised a rising stock market and anxiety-free prosperity. The new mythology holds that we've been mugged by corporate greed, which depresses stock prices and devastates "trust." In some ways, this is reassuring. It allows us to believe that purging dishonest executives and enacting the proper reforms will make things right. Unfortunately, it's also false."

"Morality tales are seductive. They express legitimate outrage. They're simple and understandable. It's right vs. wrong. Get rid of the bad guys, and the good guys can win."

"But the very simplicity of morality tales can be misleading."

redux [06.16.02]
SatireWire Remaining U.S. CEOs Make a Break For It

"Unwilling to wait for their eventual indictments, the 10,000 remaining CEOs of public U.S. companies made a break for it yesterday, heading for the Mexican border, plundering towns and villages along the way, and writing the entire rampage off as a marketing expense.

"They came into my home, made me pay for my own TV, then double-booked the revenues," said Rachel Sanchez of Las Cruces, just north of El Paso. "Right in front of my daughters.""