Blame Newt Gingrich for WorldCom

I am like one of those monomaniacs who button-hole you at parties--ranting about bird-watching, say, and jabbing you in the chest. I can't stop writing about corporate malfeasance.

But I can add something new, and controversial: I know who's responsible for the fraudulent accounting that allowed WorldCom, Enron, Global Crossing, and others to deceive investors.

It was Newt Gingrich--Newt, and the ideologically over-heated, maniacally anti-government, anti-regulatory House Republicans who came to office in the fall of 1994.

Here's why. In three specific cases--tort reform, the accounting of options, and the separation of an accounting firm's audit and consulting services--House Republicans successfully sought to block regulation that would have made corporations transparent. Without Newt Gingrich, there would have been no crisis in business and accounting, at least in this form.