Companies that stress financial results measured as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, should be one potential red flag for regulators (Krantz 2002:2). Because it is extremely difficult for ordinary investors to carefully compare companies like WorldCom with their rivals, so they can see how other companies capitalize their costs, this underlines the need for greater oversight of emerging technical companies, as well as large-scale firms, in terms of what constitutes a cost and an investment. The damage done by WorldCom is not confined to its executives, accountants, and to the individuals who perpetuated the fraud, but the millions of ordinary employees and investors that relied upon the company for their livelihood. Nothing can restore the financially secure future these individuals expected. They assumed that they would be able to count on the now-bankrupt firm for their pension, health insurance, and future advancement. The FASB must issue more specific guidelines as...

It also should create more detailed guidelines in the form of a press release for the layperson, who wishes to contemplate buying such stock in such firms. Finally, the media itself, the business community of reporters that only descended upon the story well after the fraud was revealed, would do a great service to the public if it exercised more scrutiny and used more investigative reporting techniques, rather than merely reporting on the daily blips of the stock market. More investigation is required of what lies are being perpetuated on the balance sheets of companies whose names scroll on the tickertape of Wall Street.
Works Cited

Krantz, Matt. (27 Jun 2002). "Accounting fraud: the problems."

USA Today. Retrieved 29 Jan 2008 at http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/2007-10-24-accounting-fraud_N.htm