I'm an accountant....and I'm sorry

I feel I must apologize.

Yes, I am an accountant. Been one for decades. Seen a lot of financial crap and crises in that time.

For the first time I feel I'm part of the problem.

You see, my profession thought the financial transparency of publicly traded companies would be enhanced by...enhanced accounting principles and financial auditing standards. You see, we are a lot like generals-we prepare to fight the last war. And that war was Enron, among others that followed.

So we promulgated something called 'mark to market' for certain financial transacttions. This has been getting a lot of press lately. This was stupid and I thought so a couple of years ago as it was being debated.

Yes, the profession was being pushed by the SEC and GAO and Congress and maybe we were just following orders.

But most of us should have known better. The system really wasn't broken at the time. But in our mission to make things better for investors, we forced financial corporations to swallow a poisoned pill. It was time released and has now hit the system's 'blood stream.'

This is what happens when you allow lawyers, and accountants pushed by lawyers and congressmen, to be responsible for...hell, anything!

Sorry.