Corporate Corruption in America

Corporate Corruption in America
The American economy saw record gains throughout the 1990’s. Much of this phenomenon was due to great business; however, in light of recent scandals such as WorldCom, Tyco, and Adelphia, Americans have become increasingly skeptical of business, specifically, accounting practice. With the sudden collapse of Enron, one of the world’s largest energy companies, it is all too evident that business is not as clean and prosperous as Americans would like to believe. The problems arose in part because greedy executives at Enron and Arthur Anderson focused on the “letter of the law” rather than on whether or not their proposed accounting measures appeared ethical and fair. Obviously, the scope of this issue extends way beyond Enron, but understanding Enron’s downfall will shed some light upon this dark situation.
A brief history of the American economy is necessary. The Stock Market crashed in 1929. Several years later, Congress’s Pec...