Accounting
that "obviate." Auditors and the public accounting industry received a good scolding from Levitt. Glaring failures in the auditing process at Sunbeam, Waste Management Inc., and Cendant have put the whole industry at risk of public solutions. The auditors have failed to be the "watch dog" of investors. It is time to clean up your industry. Criticism by the entire financial community has questioned the auditors, qualifications, methods and their ability to police themselves. Finally Levitt challenges corporate management, and investors to begin a cultural change. Change that resists the pressures to follow the leader in accounting chicanery. Investors are encouraged to set financial standards of integrity and transparency and punish those who depend on illusion and deception. "American markets enjoy the confidence of the world. How many half-truths, and how much sleight-of-hand, will it take to tarnish that faith?" With the shift away form company run pension plans everyone has become their own personal financial planners. What hangs in the balance is the future of us all.