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Don't swim on a full stomach

© Cara Lange

I had this article planned out as a detailed description of the various ways of building up a college savings fund for the rising cost of education in the U.S. But in light of current events, I will postpone that article for another month and devote this month's article to something even more disturbing than the spiraling cost of a decent education: the decline of ethics in business today.

Now, I know some people think that the term 'business ethics' is an oxymoron, but I genuinely thought that we had a pretty decent (Not perfect) system of oversight where a company's financial statements were concerned. I mean, every company's managers and top executives all answer to the street, so you expect them to want to steal and cheat their way to make an extra cent or two in earnings. With the average Fortune 500 CEO's salary in the high six figures, (and many of them have seven or even eight figure salaries) with bonuses and incentives tied directly to share price, the fact that some of them are more than willing to be less than honest to inflate profits doesn't shock me.

This week saw two corporate giants come out of the closet and disclose that they had inflated profits by billions. The numbers these companies massaged into their revenue numbers are more than the GNP of some small countries. That was it for me. I moved most of my money out of the stock market. I'm had it with corporate lies and I won't get back into the investment pool until the government and corporate America clean up the stink of their mess. Please, you're giving me a stomachache.

So here's my call to the Bush Administration and Congress: I'm through with listening to your speeches of outrage and moral affront. I want to see action! Give more money to the SEC and make sure they can effectively police the enforcers - the auditing firms. I also want to see the individuals that perpetrated these scams behind bars - not in Club Med.

My anger stems from two things: first, as an accountant, Arthur Andersen has managed to give the term "Accountant" a bad name - again. I work hard to maintain my professional integrity and know that 99.99% of my colleagues do as well. I want those financial advisors without morals to be held accountable. Secondly, as a stockholder, I'm beyond angry to see just how this country and this business climate is treating the common man and our money. Do you think we don't see the country "house" that Kenneth Lay has? Or the CFO of WorldCom's private Florida mansion?

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