CECIL W. JACKSON, BUSINESS FAIRY TALES: GRIM REALITIES OF FICTITIOUS FINANCIAL REPORTING

摘要

This engaging book by Cecil Jackson, a professor of clinical accounting at the University of Southern California, is aimed at the general public, and will appeal to individual investors who are looking for some guidance on how to avoid losing money on the next Enron. The book will also be of interest to those looking for a one-stop detailed explanation of the business scandals that bankrupted Enron, WorldCom, and Sunbeam.rnIn the book, Jackson takes on the challenging task of explaining the complex accounting "schemes" used by managers at companies such as Enron and WorldCom to manipulate financial statements. Other recent books that have attempted to do the same include Financial Shenanigans by Howard Schilit (2002), now in its second edition, and The Financial Numbers Game by Charles Mulford and Eugene Comiskey (2002). These books, while also aimed at the general public, are generally more useful to an audience that has some financial acumen. By comparison, Jackson's book adopts a more populist exposition style similar to a BusinessWeek or Fortune article, which makes it potentially more accessible to a wider audience.