When a felon’s not engaged in his
employment,

Or maturing his felonious little plans,

His capacity for innocent enjoyment

Is just as great as any honest man’s.

— Gilbert
and Sullivan, “Pirates of Penzance,” 1879

I’m about to be off for
several weeks, for that nearly-sacred ritual of summer holiday, so beloved in
Europe and observed with enthusiasm.

Predictions of the
unexpected that might arise while I’m gone are impossible, of course: human
mis-handling of complex events ranging from BP’s Deepwater Horizon to the Gaza
blockade to the quality of World Cup officiating show that timing pays no
respect to environmental disasters or tribal violence or even soccer’s off-side
rule.

But reasonable
expectations are that life may be calm for a while at least in the space that
is watched over here. 

That’s because:

• The world of
  financial information and public accountancy was left untouched either by the
  Dodd-Frank regulatory legislation now clanking toward passage through the U.S.
  Congress, or by the Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the
  Sarbanes-Oxley law (here)
  
• Invited to
  inaction, then, rather than to further public mischief-making, American legislators
  are now off for the summer to abuse their subordinates or their constituents or
  their expense accounts.
• Summer is not
  typically the time for the eruption of financial scandal, which is rather
  pressured into public view by the stresses of year-end reporting and the
  eventual and unavoidable escalation and collapse of Ponzi-style machinations.
  
• Instead, the next generation
  of white-collar financial criminals are beavering away, beneath the screens of
  visibility, always and ever searching out the exploitable weaknesses in the
  world’s fragile systems of corporate governance and reporting.  

So, while it is no
time for naïveté or diminished diligence, it may justifiably be time for a
little pause. The challenges of this fall’s new season of discontent will
arrive soon enough – so enjoy the summer while we can.

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