keywords: forbes earnings enron executives corporate
text: A Matter of Trust (Forbes.com) Forbes.com - There is more to corporate performance than what you see in the earnings reports. Could an investor have anticipated the trouble at companies like Enron, Adelphia, WorldCom and Tyco by looking more closely at how they were governed and how they kept their books? Their problems, to be sure, are far more visible in hindsight, but nonetheless each left telltale signs that all was not well. Robust reported earnings growth at both Enron and WorldCom was not supported by hard cash. The Adelphia board was stacked with company insiders who turned a blind eye to self-dealing by company executives. ...