an econ / business professor added a bit on the weakening of the Financial Accounting Standards Board in the course of vicious fighting / lobbying in Congress recently, over just your points:

The intermixing of auditing and ""consulting"" functions - a proposed amendment would also have forced disclosure of stock options given Acct'g firms' execs yada yada. He described the action then as, "taking a big bag of coins and walking the halls of congress, dropping them in slots.."

All quashed: Phil Gramm (he of the Enron-wife) proposed a compromise bill which - natch preserved all the perks / did nothing. 'Course ol Phil retired.. just about the time E was heading for the toilet.

Oh well, Civics 101 and Econ were fiction courses, right? It's actually a Billy n'Bally world but ssshhh!


A.