Big blow to US imperialism:
Corporate fraud and the Bush connection

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The series of big corporate scandals since last year has been a big blow to US imperialism. The US is estimated to lose $37 billion-$42 billion this year as a result.

WorldCom has recently filed for bankruptcy, the biggest in US history, further exposing the artificial growth of the US economy anchored on overvalued shares in the stock market and the greed and decadence characteristic of capitalism in general.

Aside from this, the cases highlighted the longstanding corrupt, parasitic and conspiratorial nature of monopoly capitalist practices and the involvement in, and blind tolerance of, the anomalies by highly placed officials in the US government.

Among the most prominent is a case involving insider trading by Bush in 1990, where he hurriedly sold his stocks in Harken Energy Corp. worth $339,424 eight days before the company declared that it had incurred $23 million in losses.

US law prohibits insider trading or trading stocks for personal profit on the basis of material information that is not publicly known.

Vice President Richard Cheney likewise faces a serious case involving Halliburton, an oil company he headed from 1995 to 2000. He was mainly responsible for overstating Halliburton�s profits by more than $400 million in order to artificially raise the value of the company�s stocks.

To alleviate unrest in the system caused by the scandals, parry criticisms on his administration and cover up his own wrongdoing, Bush was pushed to hypocritically adopt a tough stance against corporate malpractices. All he could do, however, was sanctimoniously chastise the �few bad ones� and extend the sentence of convicted wrongdoers to 10 years.

As the investigation proceeded and cases were fi led against some of those involved in the anomalies, others close to Bush continued to enjoy protection. Among them is Thomas White, who is involved in the Enron case but is being retained in the Bush cabinet as Secretary of the Department of the Army. As a former Enron executive, White doctored the books in the department he headed to make it appear that it earned $500 million. He sold his stocks worth $12 million before the truth came to light and the company collapsed.

Due to the corporate bankruptcies and the resulting scandals, stock prices have been plummeting for months in almost all companies in the US stock market, with many investors shying away from betting on them.

Many companies are concerned about more anomalies coming out in the open, especially since Arthur Andersen (the accounting firm involved in the biggest anomalies) has been compelled to submit for investigation the books of more than 1,000 companies it has been auditing. Several corporations have also been scrambling to fix their financial records and issue new income statements covering the past five years.

Simultaneously, there are growing calls from the American people to punish guilty officials and compensate the victims.

August 2002
English Edition

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