A 5 page synopsis of Andy Serwer's article of this title in Fortune Magazine. Serwer begins with an analogy to a scene in Charlotte's Web where the rat eats the garbage and thinks it is a feast but Americans can no longer digest the garbage being handed out in corporate financial reports. This essay captures Sewer's main points, including the Enron debacle being the catalyst for closer analysis of corporate financial reports. This essay ends with three questions accountants need to ask themselves. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
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we had to conclude that it was a synopsis/review of this article.] The Enron debacle has been a catalyst for numerous articles, including this one entitled Dirty Rotten Numbers
by Andy Serwer published in Fortune Magazine February 18, 2002. Serwer begins with a citation from E.B. Whites classic childrens book Charlottes Web in which Templeton, the Rat, has
eaten all the garbage left at the end of the fair and believed it to be a rich feast for himself. Serwer notes that the garbage that Templeton found so
tempting is not something our digestive tracts can handle. Wed get very sick if we ate that stuff. The point of the story is that after a fair all that
is left is rotten garbage and right now there is "something terribly rotten with American business right now, and its making a lot of us sick" (Serwer, 2002, p. 74).
It began with the lying and cheating from the 1990s and now, in the beginning of this decade the lack of honesty and integrity during those years has come back
to bite us. And this has led to what Serwer calls judgment day and Wall Street is showing this by separating the haves and the have-nots. Brokers are selling off
any stock shares where there is even the slightest question about accounting methods of accurate reporting. This is all the result of the events with Enron, events that have
led to halogen lights shining on all companies and analysts looking with fine-tooth combs at anything that is in any way questionable. In the first weeks in February, for instance,
stock prices tumbled on Tyco, Cendant, Williams Cos., PNC, Elan, and Anadarko because there were reportedly accounting problems. The cost to the public is huge. Serwer cited comments from