Credit in the box: An ode to market efficiency

Purpose – To identify key elements in corporate financial reporting abuse – accounting manipulation, inadequate auditing, misled capital markets, corporate executive compensation, executive flight, newspaper outrage, clever legal defences, and eventual accountability and punishment. Design/methodology/approach – Fictional poem. Findings – Truth eventually surfaces followed by public retribution. Research limitations/implications – To reduce complex situations to their fundamental elements. Originality/value – Observing the corporate financial reporting scene at its most primitive.