Greed Doesn't Pay

What is happening in the stock market ought to be of concern to all of us. Many retirement accounts are taking a severe hit and the cause is just as much greed and lying by top corporate executives, as it is the uncertainty surrounding terrorism.

Books have been cooked and top management has brazenly lied about profits in order to artificially inflate stock prices and reap even more performance bonuses for themselves.

Whatever the stockholders and securities and exchange commission can do to bolster confidence in business and the stock market should be done. Top executives who are co-conspirators in such things as Enron and Tyco should go to jail, their assets seized and employees compensated for their pain and suffering.

Wall Street needs confidence-building measures and there is nothing like honesty and coming clean to do just that. But we must also demand the very ethics of ourselves that we demand of management. Some of us got too greedy during the 90s and we are now paying the price. I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.