Ben Stein (yes, that Ben Stein) is, in addition to his Hollywood work, one of the better investigative journalists to ever work the Wall Street beat. He almost single-handedly brought down Michael Milken and the the Keating Five. He's written an interesting article on Global Crossing and Enron for The American Prowler that is quite insightful.

In light of all these recent scandals, an observation: increased calls for "regulation" of corporations are mostly being made by people who don't quite know what "regulation" means. In a legal sense, this usually means setting up petty bureaucrats and giving them broad powers to control what companies do without being subject to judicial review. This is a bad idea. What would be a good idea, as Stein proposes, is repealing some of the Clinton/Gingrich Era "reforms" that made so much of this possible, and, as Stein does not suggest, more laws that put company officers and independent auditing firms in serious danger of going to jail for fraud or abuse, or for covering it up. This is not the same thing as "regulation," and no, that is not splitting hairs. It is a crucial distinction.