The Shell Game

It's always interesting to compare and contrast the differences between ways the business press and the popular press cover corporate malfeasance.

In the CBS MarketWatch story, it seems a bit troubling. In the story in The Independent, the title: "Lies, cover-ups, fat cats and an oil giant in crisis" cuts to the bone. I like that.

Shell has been very bad.

Given that corporate 'book cooking' is still happening, you'd think that champion of everyman: G. W. Bush, would be taking a tough stance on corporate tax cheats. You'd be wrong.

From the NYT:

Since taking office, the Bush administration has repeatedly promised to get tough with tax cheats, saying it has ended a long slide in enforcement of tax laws.

But an independent analysis of new Internal Revenue Service data released today shows that tax enforcement has fallen steadily under President Bush, with fewer audits, fewer penalties, fewer prosecutions and virtually no effort to prosecute corporate tax crimes. The audit rate for the 11,200 largest corporations, which pay nearly all corporate income taxes, has fallen by almost half over the last decade, as has the audit rate for unincorporated businesses.

Link.

Ken Lay remains free. Astonishing. Maybe we can get Kenny Boy labeled an 'enemy combatant' and send him to Gitmo sans any charges whatever. :) I won't be holding my breath.