Last week, I received the following email from a reader who was responding to this earlier post:

You had this comment on your website, today.

“In what alternative reality is it that a busy law dean and expert on ethics can be expected to spot accounting fraud?”

Do you recall that Tom Peters sent his MBA back to Stanford because the its Dean who had taught him accounting was the Chairman of the Enron Audit Committee.
It is not that these people are too lazy or overworked; its greed, dishonesty, and mendacity.

For those who do not follow the Enron affair closely, Robert Jaedicke is the former Stanford Business School dean who was the chairman of the Enron Board’s audit committee during the period in which it approved Enron’s transactions with Andrew Fastow‘s infamous special purpose entities that were used to create between $30 and $40 billion of off-balance sheet debt. Tom Peters is a well-known author and management specialist who at one time inquired about sending his MBA back to Stanford as an objection to Mr. Jaedicke’s Congressional testimony, but I don’t believe he ever followed through on it.
Over the weekend, I have been trying to come up with a thoughtful reply to the above email. Then, this morning, I discovered that Professor Ribstein has already performed the task for me in his typically insightful manner. Check it out.