I agree with you that the Enron fiasco is about the sudden discovery of a poster child that fits the need for a scapegoat for the burst bubble. I also agree that the action against Andersen is a direct result of the media frenzy surrounding Enron for the reasons I gave in my original post.

I wasn't really talking about an indictment of Microsoft (even though that would be my wish).

I was talking about a climate change under which it is no longer unthinkable to indict Andersen, a firm with 85,000 employees (28,000 in the US) because they should have known better than do what they did. In my eyes, if a Republican administration pulls-off this prosecution of Andersen for what is essentially betrayal of trust, then there is a message sent even if it will mostly fall on deaf ears.

As posted elsewhere, there are some significant differences:

* Andersen is not publicly traded. Microsoft has a bazillion stockholders.

* Enron was a failure. Microsoft rakes-in money. (Brandioch)