To the editor:

In a recent hearing before Congress (LJW 7/18), Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, made some incredibly disingenuous remarks concerning publicly held companies CEOs trading on Wall Street. Somehow, Greenspan thinks these folk should not be required to verify the accuracy of company finances with federal regulators, nor be forced to do so.

Now supposedly, these CEOs are totally in charge, the leaders of the corporate world on Wall Street. And in return, these highly salaried men receive additional incredibly obscene amounts of money based on “earnings and profits” reported in the same company financial documents they are not required to verify for federal regulators! And should they get caught cooking the books and creative accounting, a generous Greenspan allows them to make a “restatement” of earnings. (the CEOs never give back the money they stole). And stock analysts wonder why the little guy is getting out of the stock market as quickly as he can!

Translation: Corporate CEOs have a “get out of jail free card,” and the new lexicon for corporate lies on official financial documents is now known as a corporate “restatement.” Washington and Wall Street are becoming indistinguishable every day. No one at the top can be held responsible, no one is liable, no one will ever go to jail.

Curtis D. Bennett,

Lawrence