Political Quotes

“as every Member of this Chamber knows and, more importantly, as every American investor knows, we have recently witnessed lapses in corporate responsibility unlike anything that has occurred during the past 70 years. It is our role to determine why this has happened and what can be done to prevent it from continuing to happen. I rise to offer some thoughts, as well as to lend my support, to the accounting reform legislation now on the Senate floor. Several years ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan characterized the latter stages of the great bull market of the 1990s as irrational exuberance. Although stock prices rose for a few years after that statement, they ultimately collided with economic reality and embarked upon an extended decline. It now appears that that irrational exuberance was being sustained in some instances by improper accounting. Put differently, one way of satisfying the insatiable appetite of some for ever-increasing corporate profits, as well as for rich compensation packages, was to cook the books. Many, although not all, of the recent alleged abuses have occurred in what has been the hot sectors of our economy. Electric deregulation, the development of the Internet, new medical treatments, and the spread of broadband are all thought to hold enormous prospect for future growth. Unfortunately, for some of the companies in those areas the growth in accounting creativity outstripped the growth in business fundamentals.”