Teaching Accounting Tricks No Class Act

If it were not for the magnitude of my equity losses as a result of the rampant ethical fraud within the business community in reporting earnings, I would have had a good laugh at “Accountants Can’t Keep Up With Financial Complexity,” [Feb. 24].

I will limit myself to one small portion, the reference to Nancy Wallace, who teaches at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

I ask you, what is the difference between her teaching her students how to falsely keep earnings elevated and balance sheet assets low and teaching a class on how people should rob gas stations and 7-Elevens?

To me the difference is getting a couple of hundred dollars in the robbery, versus cheating the public, institutional investors and lenders out of billions of dollars.

The robber might go to jail for 25 to life for stealing a couple of hundred dollars. The graduate of professor Wallace’s class gets a golden parachute.

Harold L. Katz

West Los Angeles