The damage, though, goes way beyond Enron, because it calls the entire American market's integrity into question. America and its investors have been able to sit up on the mountaintop, confident with the knowledge that the Securities and Exchange Commission is charged with "protecting investors and maintaining market integrity." On the balance, the SEC does an admirable job, and because of their efforts, the United States stock markets are the destination of choice for scores of millions of international investors. We can even call it "the SEC Premium," if you want. For this very reason, The Motley Fool has counseled American investors that there is no need to invest overseas , that shareholder protection is inferior in nearly every other market. Disclosure laws in Japan? Forget it. Trust the regulators in China? Not a chance, particularly in light of the fact that the government is the majority owner in many companies. Germany? Good regulatory framework, but its accounting rules are a shambles.

Here, we thought, we had the best of all worlds, even though there are always going to be shysters, and there will always be another dupe. But Enron is different, because it calls into question whether we can trust anything from any public company. None of the checks worked, because the system is corrupt. Many investors are getting wise to the fact that they cannot trust the opinions of Wall Street analysts due to conflicts of interest. But financial filings are not opinions, they are stated as fact, and reviewed and signed off on by an independent auditor. As it turns out, we cannot trust the auditor, because in this case Enron's accountant, Arthur Andersen, KNEW, starting at least in February, that something was deeply rotten in Houston, and they did nothing, and still signed their approval on two additional disgusting farces parading as quarterly reports.

Arthur Andersen, the company, seems that it will pay the price for its complicit actions in deceiving shareholders, as it is now the target of scores of lawsuits, not to mention potential civil and criminal cases. But unless the pain is felt by the individuals who skirted the law at Enron and their conspirators at Andersen, there will be nothing to stop this from happening again. The penalty for gaming the American markets must be severe, it must be painful, and it must deprive the perpetrators of the money they so desperately crave.

Enron shareholders have no chance at all to be made whole once again, nor should they be. But the appearance that the United States markets are corrupt must be fought with ruthlessness.

Hit 'em where it hurts, and look angry about it. This is no time to play politics.