Tougher Enforcement Needed to Fix Corporate Fraud, Economist Says

7/11/2002

From: Julie Majeres of the Pacific Research Institute, 415-989-0833 ext. 120

SAN FRANCISCO, July 11 -- The following announcement of media availability was released today from the Pacific Research Institute:

Before the Bush Administration and Congress jump on the accounting reform bandwagon, they should look to the rules that are already in place. Those rules say that criminal fraud equals jail time. "But the government has failed to protect investors and workers from corporate fraud, corruption, and obstruction of justice by not putting the country-club boys behind bars to serve real jail time," says Dr. Lawrence J. McQuillan, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) at the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute (PRI). Dr. McQuillan is available for comment on this issue.

"Quite simply, this is criminal fraud and it's the government's responsibility to jail those responsible," said Dr. McQuillan in an op-ed in yesterday's USA Today. "Markets did their job in response to accounting improprieties by quickly re-valuing America's 17,000 publicly traded companies. Now the government must do its job by punishing those who cooked the books."

Dr. Lawrence J. McQuillan is also senior fellow in political economy and has written extensively on monetary and fiscal policy, government regulation and deregulation, crime, labor unions, health care, international economics, and political institutions. He is coeditor of "The International Monetary Fund -- Financial Medic to the World? A Primer on Mission, Operations, and Public Policy Issues" and author of "The Case against the International Monetary Fund."

Before joining PRI, Dr. McQuillan was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was also the founding publisher and contributing editor of Economic Issues, a national subscription newsletter that reviewed economic journal articles relevant to current public policy issues.

The Pacific Research Institute's CFE examines how the entrepreneurial spirit, the engine of economic growth and opportunity, is stifled by onerous taxes, regulations, and health care policies. The CFE recommends comprehensive public policy reforms that would maintain a robust economy, ensure consumer choice, and spur creativity and innovation.

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Julie Majeres at (415) 989-0833 ext. 120 or jmajeres@pacificresearch.org.