Is phony accounting by business firms &our USgov a rootcause of all the financial crises that keep popping up?

The Fully worded Q, if it could have fit the Q-box, is this:

Is phony accounting by our business firms & our USgov one of if not the main root cause of all the financial crises that keep popping up hurting all Americans?

The subprime/ No-dues-No documents home mortgage debacle ,and the S&L bail out many years ago before that, involved/involves phony accounting. Nothing that Henry Paulsen, the Fed Chair, said yesterday 3/31/2008 addresses this problem? More deregulation? Did he wish us all Happy April Fools Day to all a day early? It feels that way to me. (BTW Enron came to mind too but do you mentioning here would be overkill??

google "Henry Paulsen plan" And if you have a conflict of interest in answering my Q, please admit it!

No. Markets are cyclical. We've enjoyed great growth through the nineties and through most of this decade. The markets are now in a downward cycle. This have happened, on average, every seven years for a century. The longer the period and larger size of the growth the larger and longer the retraction. Enron was six years ago and regulation has been put in place to keep it from happening again. (Accounting standards have changed dramatically since then) If anything the government might be going to far to prop our economy up and not letting the markets put the dogs out of their misery.

You sound really angry. Im not affiliated with anyone. I studied the Enronnron case in a lot of my classes. Ive also taken several economics courses that explain that markets expand and contract. The saving and loan crises happened because the companies got greedy and issued credit to people that shouldn't have gotten it. It's not the governments fault people got in over their heads and signed mortgages they couldn't afford. A number of the issuers are out of business and heads have rollled and continue to roll as a result of this mess but it will get sorted out in the end. The the cyclical nature of our economy will continue and people will praise the government when the markets go up and condemn it when it goes down just like they always have.

I think you haven't lived long enough! How do You infer motive or feelings about a Q that irritates you, is beyond me. Report It

I think that is your way of dismissing the point about unethical behaviors of people who see economics as exploitation & a power game. Gov't dropped the ball & trusted in the myth of market's that can self-regulate themselves. Report It

George Soros who just came out with a new book: A New Paradigm For Financial Markets explains why "market fundamentalists" are naive thinkers in a global setting! See Rose interview of Soros 04/10/2008 Report It