>The accounting problems that Enron and the others have, has not been caused by regulations or the lack of them, rather it is the integrity of the people involed or better the lack of integrity.

Programming at home brought me into far more contacts with with accountants than I liked, so over the years I had to learn enough of their work to be able to write proper tools for them to make their life easier.

OTOH, here in the States I have had absolutely no contact with accounting, I don't even know which system is in use, and I'm sort of glad - I've had enough of that field.

Still, one sentence which I've heard repeatedly in the news in the recent months keeps me a little curious. It's something about some of the items being kept off the books, and that it was legal. This confuses the hell out of me.

If I've heard it well, then all this that's happening is no wonder - back home, the mere mention of "off the books" was a hint to something illegal. Everything had to be booked somewhere, from utility bills to writing off a broken chair to rebates given or received to each tax item paid - everything, no exceptions.

There was some room for creative accounting, but it had to be within the legal ramifications - certain items could be classified differently and could thus influence the tax. One of our customers has made enough difference in tax by such practices to buy real leather sofa and chairs for the entrance hall. But they still had their books in ship-shape.