Thursday, April 10, 2003
HealthSouth. Is there are more hinky word in the headlines today? Well, maybe it’s CEO, Richard Scrushy are two that top HealthSouth. Today, he is petitioning a court to unfreeze the 70 million dollars that he creamed off of HealthSouth so he can pay his taxes (17 million) and live in the way that he has become accustom.
What can I tell you? Iraqis are in the streets, thanking the troops. American outfits are lining up to help Iraq. But the mission to restore or salvage what’s left of the integrity of the American capital markets all comes down to the judge who must rule on Scrushy's motion to release his ill gotten gains, and most likely what the judge read this morning with his breakfast, and maybe what the judge ate too, I guess.
HealthSouth amounts to more hinky accounting, more fraud, and another hustler in a hand made suits (who owns 57 boats) who may be walking away from another 200 car pile up in the Public markets without a scratch. "The American way," is looking more and more like just a punchline.
Hinky 12:55 PM
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Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Well, CEO pay rose 15% last year, according Reuters (click to see the 4/2 story). That's hinky enough to stop right here for the day, but maybe the average value of restricked stock awards sweatens the hinky pot-- it has reached $1.3 million for 2002. The only thing more stupifyingly more hinky (terrorism level hinky), was the 8% average raise Mutual Fund directors gave themselves for the year, as those whose money they were bound to protect with a fiduciary duty just got fucked out of their live's savings in many cases, as the market sank.
In the meantime, Crudele is pointing out how wall street has very little to improve America's capital markets, such as...click here He makes several great points-- we really like the one about the pros moving the Dow to make a day's pay because they can. It's starting to look-- and maybe it always has looked-- like a national security issue; take Healthsouth, Worldcom, Global Crossing, Enron. Just imagine if accounting scandles start flowing at a ratio that is representative of how much hinky accounting was taking place in the 1990's. Markets may not fail, but average investors-- the "saps," mooks and other poor devils, who tried to play the smart money games may bail from American markets, and this slow crash may finally hit a bottom, at which time all the kings horses will be standing around with their fingers somewhere in the middle of the dessert.
Meanwhile STANLEY SPORKIN, a former director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission is calling for RE Form, like he lead in the 1970s where he had gone after accounting firms, law firms and brokerage houses, or any other outfit providing "ACCESS" to the capital markets for corporate America. Access was the name of his program to shut down the hinky dealing, hinky dealers and hinky deals. With Donldson (the fox who was guarding the hen house when all the hinky accounting was let slide) heading the SEC again, Sporkin's call for accounting reform sounds like the end of Saving Private Ryan in a sea of deaf American ears. After years of off balance sheet accounting where the footnotes ate the page and exceptions swallowed the rules, we give Sporkin's call for re regulation of business conduct a 20% chance of going anywhere. We dont' see hinky Lieberman sure won't be leading the charge on this one.
Tired of all this hinky money talk; well, you can always play where's waldo on google, and maybe you'll be one of the frist to read about it when they actually find Saddam's teeth and his son's eyeball collection.
Hinky 9:52 PM
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Monday, April 07, 2003
Arab cartoons give you a glance at the hinky war from another POV: see Arab News' M Kahil
Hinky 10:14 AM
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