from SLATE, today's papers, By Eriq Gardner, February 17, 2002: >The NY [TIMES], in its off-lead, finds more trouble with Enron's accounting. The now-shamed corporation, which once more or less based its business plan on the word, "hedge," used the word's plural on its balance sheet to also describe the loans it was getting from Wall Street. Instead of counting the $3.2 billion in loans as "debt" (in addition to the $8-10 billion in debt it hid in partnerships), Enron hid the money "in plain sight," telling credit rating agencies, industry analysts and investors that it was merely "hedging activity." < J Devine
