Hidden Financial Risk

J. EDWARD KETZ, PhD, is MBA Faculty Director and Associate Professor of accounting at Penn State's Smeal College of Business. He has been cited in the press over 500 times since Enron's bankruptcy, and is well known as an accounting expert as attested in writings, vast citations in the press and on television, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. His column "Accounting Annotations" is published in Accounting Today and his column "Accounting Cycle: Wash, Rinse, and Spin" appears regularly at SmartPros.com. He is also the author of Bridge Accounting: Procedures, Systems, and Controls (Wiley).

• Preface. PART I. MY INVESTMENTS WENT OUCH!1. What? Another Accounting Scandal?2. Balance Sheet Woes.PART II. HIDING FINANCIAL RISK.3. How to Hide Debt with the Equity Method.4. How to Hide Debt with Lease Accounting.5. How to Hide Debt with Pension Accounting.6. How to Hide Debt with Special Purpose Entities.PART III. FAILURES THAT LED TO DECEPTIONS.7. The Failure of Managers and Directors.8. The Failure of the Auditing Profession.9. The Failure of Regulation.10. The Failure of Investors.PART IV. MAKING FINANCIAL REPORTS CREDIBLE.Chapter 11. Andersen Has the Solution—Really!Bibliography.Index.

"Ketz' discussion is fascinating, although all too useful to future scamsters wanting to find out just how those clever guys at Enron did it." (UPI Business and Economics, August 11, 2003)