"HP plunged 12 percent after executives said that a company HP bought for $10 billion last year lied about its finances. CEO Meg Whitman said that there were "serious accounting improprieties" at the search-engine company, Autonomy ........ Oh heavens no. ANOTHER company with "serious accounting improprieties" and the corporation with high-priced financial wizards couldn't figure it out? If that's the case, how can the average joe and jane be expected to figure out if a companies finances are legit or not?

Who on Earth handled HP's M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions)? There are huge firms full of lawyers and accountants who do nothing but figure this stuff out. Heads should be rolling, starting with Meg Whitman's. But in today's market, fraud is the new standard. Nobody will be held accountable, except maybe some patsy underling nobody likes anyway. Just like the number of Executives charged in the millions of fraudulent title transfers, or non-transfers, of flipped mortgages over the past decade. Zero.

sek, Too bad they can't be as efficient as our government....right? You know, the people who have added six trillion dollars to our deficit in less than four years. Keep blaming the private sector, and let's see where that get's us.

e added six trillion dollars to our deficit in less than four years. Keep blaming the ...You know that the cost of the Iraq war was added AFTER Bush left office right ? Or are you just trying to mislead.

Would not be surprised to see the Meg experiment end very soon.

Don't forget, hewonwelost, Reagan tripled the debt. Every Republican President after Nixon raised the debt and led us in to a recession. But don't let the facts get in the way of your learning.

Cityperson: I was around during the Carter years, so I know what it was like before Reagan took office. Inflation was 22% under Carter. Look it up if you don't believe me. We were in a recesssion when Reagan took office. After several years, the Reagon tax cuts lead to one of the longest economic expansions in US history. Yes, the debt went up because Reagan cut taxes. The congress was controlled by Democrats and he could not pass the spending cuts he wanted, such as eliminating the Department of Education. Even under those circumstances, the debt did not rise as fast as it has under Obama. The debt under Reagan went from 1 trillion to 2.7 trillion. Under Obama the debt has gone from 10 trillion to 14 trillion without the economic benefits. We're still in recession, heading for the second dip. I'll take Reagan's term in office vs. what I've seen from Obama.

wayne5040: So what should Obama have done to not accumulate this debt. End both wars the day he took office? That was not feasible as the GOP was screaming "cut and run" at the least mention of ending the wars. He did not have much choice from what he inherited, the debt would have risen no matter who was president.

Jakein08: I know he shoudn't have recklessly spent a trillion dollars on a stimulus that did nothing but pay back his political supporters. He did not have to bail out GM and Chrysler. They would have came back better under bankruptcy with private capital ( a foreign concept to him). It was a way for him to give control to the unions. He canceled NASA projects slashing thousands of jobs, he has fought against oil piplines and exploration because he is beholden to militant environmentalists, and the list goes on and on. Adding Obamacare into the mix has not helped and has added to our unfunded liabilities that have yet to show up on the balance sheet. Companies like low taxes and stability now, and certainty in the future, before they invest billions of dollars into an enterprise. Under Obama, companies have stopped investing. The best thing for gov't revenues are people working (paying taxes)and he spent his political capital on Obamacare. His objective has been to create gov't programs, with money we don't have, to keep people on the dole (voting for him). And yes, since the Democrats controlled congress, he could have brought the troops home. What was stopping him? Do you think he cares what the minority republicans said?! He promised an immediate end to the wars. If you voted for him in 2008, that broken promise alone should have got him thrown out this time around.