There are definitely places for government to regulate things, but accounting isn't one of them. I cringe at the thought of accounting standards being any bit influenced by government. That is a clear no no and anyone that says differently doesn't really understand how accounting works. Accounting is not something that is black and white with rules for every possible occurence. Its full of potential uncertainties and will always be that way because businesses and their situations are all different. I highly doubt anything accounting oversight by the government would have done to prevent any of the problems you see right now. I don't even buy the argument that cutting off consulting would have cleaned it up either. If government gets involved in anything of this magnitude the Democrats talk about, its going to make an even bigger mess. Auditing already has a serious problem of hiring enough talented bodies to do most of the work, they just don't pay enough. I graduated with a degree in accounting and decided being a slave for below-market wage wasn't for me. If you add in costly regulations and surely a bunch of tedious rules to follow, I think auditing will have a near impossible job to do. Further its all a reactionary art anyways. They don't make up rules until they see things happening. The government is notorious for this. They didn't see the concept of a plane being flown into major buildings, surely they never would have seen a company hiding its debts in shell accounts based in some British islands. So where is the next accounting scandal going to come from, outside of just outright cheating as in WCOM? I dare someone to say they think some government lackey is going to figure that one out! We all know if the government gets the job it will be filled with some people that have a clue and others that just are paid friends of whoever is in power. Not an appealing idea by any means to me. Auditing is not an exact science and sure there was a bad case of fraud in Anderson's situation, but I have little doubt in my mind that a government agency wouldn't have figured anything out until it was too late. All it would have done is given the government a chance to levy huge fines and give out punishment. Nice revenge maybe, but of little solace to those that lost money in a stock.