posted on July 11, 2002 01:27:00 AM new
That's right. The major successes across the boards were NOT enjoyed by the companies that have now been exposed. The oil companies compplained of insufficient profits rather than made claims of excessive ones as is at the root of these problems.
The freedom to 'cook the books' didn't exist for them until the administration which restricted them was over. Once the barn door opened enron and worldcom and others as yet unexposed played a catch-up game to excess, hoping that the economical conditions would remain. Unfortunately for them investor confidence suffers badly in times of world disruptions of the type that bush has brought to bear and without investor funds the market collapsed leaving these criminal practitioners hanging. Now we have a new order of evildoers.
Now we find that bush used his position as a member of the board of harken to obtain low interest loans exactly as do those he condemned on monday.
posted on July 11, 2002 09:40:57 AM newBush's accountant was probably trained by Arthur Anderson and pulled the wool over his eyes just as they did Enron, et al.
This reminds me of a discussion I had with my dad. I suggested the possibility that Enron might have intentionally sought out an auditor they knew would doctor the books favorably. Dad just couldn't conceive of such a thing as a dishonest auditor.
Dad worked for a big gov't. company all his life. He's still living in the 50's.
posted on July 11, 2002 11:03:40 AM new
War. It's his best chance of getting re-elected and the best chances that other GOP contenders have. Bush is waiting on new millitary hardware inventory to be made so that he can use them up as fast as they can be produced. Those refill orders are expected around this late Fall - around election time, in fact.
Has anyone else noticed, but America's pizzed at Bush and the GOP? Oh, sure - the polls indicatee huge suport for Bush, but everywhere I go here, Republicans are angry and upset and everyone of other political persuasions keeps talking about a physical rebellion to sweep all three branches of government free of corruption.
I thought that it was only a local phenomena, but in glancing over the Internet lately, there are a lot of web site up that are not just critical of Bush, but promote active rebellion against Bush. Most people are scared of the Office of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act - even Republicans and Conservatives think that it's gone too far. We didn't see these web sites and sentiments under Clinton.
In fact, I haven't seen, heard, or felt this sort of anger and resentment on the part of the American people since the 1960's and 1970's under Nixon. But it's not the fear of being sent to a "war" that nobody wants, but the fear of this country turning into a police state.
So, our sentiments here really do reflect how the public is feeling. If Bush and the GOP knew what was good for them, they'd get rid of that Office of Homeland Security right away, along with trashing the Patriot Act.
posted on July 11, 2002 11:14:27 AM new
The words of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas :
"As nightfall does not come at once,neither does oppression. It is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air - however slight- lest we become victims of the darkness."
posted on July 12, 2002 04:33:27 PM new
Why Not take this to its logical Conclusion ?
If a citizen can be tried for crimes than so can a corporation.
If a citizen Can be executed for violating federal laws why not a corporation?
Example a company that pays out huge unrealistic bonuses then goes bankrupt after having pissed away the workers pensions like Outboard marine or pabst. the government should have the authority to go back after those funds and workers who had pensions under contract should be paid first.
posted on July 12, 2002 04:59:14 PM new
Auroranorth: According to this news story,
the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. announced last year it would cover the $73 million pension plan shortfall in the Outboard Marine pension plan. Retires did lose health insurance coverage though.
posted on July 12, 2002 05:11:12 PM new
Borillar could you provide a couple sites like you are talking about that are advocating physical literal rebellion? I would like to see how they do that without being arrested in short order as I thought it was quite clearly treason to insight to armed rebellion. Do they serve from out of the country. I realize there is some risk in even looking at such a site.
posted on July 12, 2002 05:13:41 PM new
Bush is reportedly "seething". Not at democrats but rather at the media which finds it appropriate to point out that he obtained low interest loans to purchase harken stock (the very practice which on Tuesday he demanded be made illegal) which he later sold at immense profit because he had inside knowledge that the company was about to report major losses. Seething.
posted on July 12, 2002 05:37:51 PM new
Gravid, he said physical rebellion only about people where he goes, and active rebellion on websites, but not physical active rebellion in websites... minor but significant difference.
posted on July 12, 2002 11:06:18 PM new
See Bush had everyone arrested
and Here he was the big boozer himself when he had his latest victums line up
and lo and behold there was bonilar in the line up
Now Bush feels that there must be order so he demanded that everyone stand at attention then out out their arms and go left saying tic and then right saying tock.
But there was bonilar kept going left center left center saying tic tic tic
well Bush came up to him and said ve haf vay of making you toc.
posted on July 12, 2002 11:34:37 PM new
I've been noticing unusual bookeeping at the chain store where I work. Today I found out that our auditor was (you guessed it) Arthur Andersen.
For some unexplained reason, our computer constantly reports an excess of stock in certain (many) items. For example, we will run out of an item, and the computer reports that we have received a replenishment which in fact never arrived. As a result, we constantly have to inventory every single item in the store in order to correct these computer "glitches." Once we correct the error, we usually get new stock, and then the cycle repeats itself. But the end result is that at any given time, the store has far more stock "on paper" than we actually have on the shelves. Another interesting error is that when we sell an item, it often doesn't appear on the computer as "sold" for several days.
I have been wondering for some time now why such an error-prone system exists, and why it hasn't been corrected yet. It's obviously inaccurate, and requires a ridiculous amount of man-hours just to maintain/correct.
Until this string or corporate scandals, it would never have occurred to me that a company would intentionally make itself look bigger on paper.
posted on July 12, 2002 11:38:43 PM new
By the way thanks stockticker, The article neglected to mention that the government had also denied these workers TRA benefits
posted on July 13, 2002 03:39:54 PM newWhen President Bush sold more than 200,000 shares in Harken Energy... he said he did not know the company was in bad financial shape. But memos from the company show in great detail that he was apprised of how badly the company's fortunes were failing before he sold his stock -- and that he was warned by company lawyers against selling stock based on insider information.
The dollar is falling. Stocks are in a swoon. Foreigners are calling home capital. Corporate insiders are dumping shares by the bucketful. Individuals are redeeming mutual-fund shares. Pension funds are getting socked. Banks are taking loan-portfolio hits. This is all a direct result of the spreading collapse of confidence in U.S. companies and the executives and board members who run them — a crisis that threatens to untrack a fragile economic recovery. Speaking at an economic summit in Canada, President Bush said he was "concerned about the economic impact of the fact that there are some corporate leaders who have not upheld their responsibility." The Federal Reserve seems concerned as well. At a meeting last week, it left interest rates unchanged — signaling that the recovery isn't firmly rooted. Some economists speculate that the Fed will soon cut rates to guard against a "double-dip" recession.
posted on July 13, 2002 10:11:32 PM new
I was doing research on the Busche-Nazi thing and Google came up with all kinds of Bush-related web sites that were calling for Americans to rise up and to rebel. Go to Google.com, type in BUSH NAZI TEXAS or like and you'll see links to personal web sites, many of whom are expressing their outrage at what Bush & Co. are doing, some of them suggest that the only way to stop the Office of Homeland security and the Patriot Act is an outright revolt.
Friends and Acquaintances of mine are not ready to rebel, but they have no love for Bush. Surprisingly to some of you, most of my close friends are Republicans and Libertarians, but not the stupid kind. And all of them are well educated and damned sorry that they voted for Bush in the first place. Each of them states: the other choice was Al Gore, whom I couldn't stand. In other words, Bush was not voted for because he had such promise for them, but because they disliked and distrusted Al Gore.
Now they all say that it feels like Nazis are running our government and they are angry. They said that they just won't vote for now. My Democratic and Liberal friends are at a loss for words, due to how they feel. But none of them advocate a violent overthrow of the government. I mean, I'm the most radical of them all and I don't advocate violence, no matter how good-looking a bit of strong rope looks.
But people that I meet while shopping - strangers; in grocery stores, McDonald's, schools and colleges, social groups - all are talking about The Office of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act and Bush and Congress and the Supreme Court. Many are angry enough to just about go grab their guns and head for Washington D.C. There's a *LOT* of pizzed-off people running around and Americans have had *ENOUGH* of this crap!
It won't be long now that you'll start to hear about rebellions, demonstrations, and even armed resistance. I don't think that too many Americans have any faith left for either political party, or that they'll be able to vote-out anyone to make a difference. You vote out the liars, criminals, and thieves from one political party and replace them with the liars, criminals, and thieves from the other party. What good can your vote possibly do? Really. And after what the Supreme Court Five did during the last Presidential election, Americans aren't forgetting nor are they forgiving.
posted on July 15, 2002 02:47:41 AM new
For anyone who isn't sure what 'fudging numbers' means, it works like this:
"While he has denounced attempts by corporations to "fudge
the numbers," President Bush did exactly that when he
worked in the energy industry. Before coming to the White
House, both he and Vice President Cheney built business
records with irregularities that look similar to practices by
WorldCom and other corporations condemned by the
administration in recent weeks.
Bush's record at Harken Energy and Cheney's record at
Halliburton are filled with misstated profits, SEC
investigations, and questionable stock transactions. While
they censure current executives for their actions, they
engaged in virtually the same behavior while they were
running companies.
Bush's Record at Harken
As a director of Harken Energy and a member of its audit
board, Bush was among those responsible for the accuracy
of the company's accounting practices. In 1989, it was
revealed that Harken hid losses by selling a subsidiary to
insiders and funding the sale itself.
Harken essentially sold a piece of itself back to itself and
then reported that sale as a profit. The SEC forced Harken
to take that profit off its balance sheet, which resulted in
more than $9 million in additional losses for that quarter.
In June of 1990, while he was still on Harken's board, Bush
sold 212,140 shares of Harken stock at $4 per share for
nearly $850,000, making a profit of 200 percent. Just two
months later, Harken's quarterly report indicated the company suffered losses, and
the stock fell to just $1 a share by the end of the year.
Bush didn't file the required forms for the sale until March 1991 (34 weeks late)
and was investigated by the SEC for insider trading. At the time Bush said he had
filed the forms with the SEC and claimed the SEC lost them. Recently, as public
attention has turned to his business practices, Bush changed his story, blaming the
late filing on Harken lawyers. However, federal law says it was Bush's
responsibility, not Harken's, to see that the appropriate forms were filed.
Cheney's Record at Halliburton
In 1998, when Vice President Cheney was the company's CEO, Halliburton
changed its accounting practices to count uncollected payments on disputed cost
overruns as revenue. Even though customers of the company were still questioning
the charges, Halliburton, under Cheney's watch, was counting those charges as
profits.
In the fourth quarter of 1998, these disputed costs represented a full 50 percent of
Halliburton's operating profits. In May 2002, Halliburton reported that the SEC
had begun an investigation of the practice, which began under Vice President
Cheney's watch. [Washington Post, 7/4/02; Halliburton Press Release, 5/28/02;
New York Times, 5/22/02; Wall Street Journal, 5/10/02]
It's a house of cards. The profits reported, even though they don't exist, bring about a healthy appearance on paper and results in an investment rating which stimulates investment by managers of retirement funds of all types.
When the house falls down, and there are any number of ways that it can happen, the investments lose value or become worthless and the individual investors are left with losses or completely worthless accounts.
'Fudging the numbers" as bush termed it, isn't just fun and games - it's outright criminal fraud. No attempt to make excuses for the practice by the use of phrases like "it's not always black or white" or the like makes the practices any less devastating to the people who are left with nothing after years of good faith investment, often with no choice but to do so if they would hope to have a secure old age. So far there are millions of people in this country who have lost that hope. Millions.
posted on July 15, 2002 09:49:12 AM new
How can anybody under any circustances vote again for these criminals?
"Today, I am calling for a new ethic of personal responsibility in the business community," he said, "an ethic that will increase investor confidence, regain the trust of the American people, and not be retroactive."
That last clause, "and not be retroactive" was a little added satire...
The Dow industrials skidded more than 300 points Monday, with President Bush's speech doing little to reassure investors scared off by steadily eroding stock prices in the face of corporate accounting scandals.
Losses widened after Mr. Bush began speaking about the state of the economy to a group in Alabama, saying the economy was "coming back" and remains sound. lol!
posted on July 15, 2002 11:52:21 PM new
Bush and the pundits keep saying the recession has bottomed out. Yet things keep getting worse.
The only way Bush can jumpstart the economy, and more importantly, save his popularity ratings, is (the old standby) to start a war with Iraq. He's sure not winning any points with his War On Terrorism/Homeland Security.
