Dirt Diggers Digest No. 30
March 3, 2003
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. SEC finds that big companies are still deficient in disclosure
2. Survey of class action lawsuits against drugmakers
3. Tracking the wealthy
4. New magazine from USDA's Economic Research Service
5. Recommended jumpoff page on corporate research
6. Government Accountability Project resources on corporate accountability
7. Indictment of kmart executives available online
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1. SEC finds that big companies are still deficient in disclosure
"Despite investor demand for more disclosure in a post-Enron world,
the nation's biggest companies have not made financial statements
sufficiently clear and accurate, an ongoing review by federal securities
regulators has found." This was the lead of a February 28 article in the
Washington Post about an SEC review of annual reports filed by
Fortune 500 companies in 2002. That report is not yet available on
the SEC website.
According to the Post, the SEC found that most companies still
failed to disclose key accounting policies and too often "simply
recited financial statement information without analysis or presented
boilerplate analyses that did not provide any insight into the companies'
past performance or business prospect as understood by management."
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2. Survey of class action lawsuits against drugmakers
Families USA has published a new edition of its survey of class action
lawsuits that have been brought against pharmaceutical companies for
collusion and other anticompetitive practices. The survey, which can be found
at the Families USA website <www.families.org> under the What's New
heading, has information on 19 cases.
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3. Tracking the wealthy
New editions of two tools for monitoring the wealthy are now available.
The latest edition of the Forbes list of the world's richest people is at
http://www.forbes.com/home/2003/02/26/billionaireland.html.
The magazine bemoans the fact that "67 of the previous year's billionaires
fell below the minimum this year. Four former billionaires were wiped out
entirely. Of the 476 who remain, 218 of them saw their fortunes sink.
As a group, this year's billionaires are worth $1.4 trillion, $141 billion less
than last year but still equal to the GDP of the United Kingdom."
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has published its third annual survey of
the top individual U.S. donors to charities. It can be found online at
http://philanthropy.com/free/articles/v15/i09/09000601.htm.
Topping the list is the late Walter Annenberg (founder of TV Guide), who
left a $1 billion art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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4. New magazine from USDA's Economic Research Service
The U.S. Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service has launched
a new magazine called AMBER WAVES. Among the contents of the first issue,
which can be found online at http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/, are a feature
on the environmental problems of factory farms and summaries of current ERS
projects, including a study of the impact of retail consolidation on food prices.
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5. Recommended jumpoff page on corporate research
My colleague Mafruza Khan wants to make sure all Dirt Diggers
know about the valuable page of links on corporate research that
can be found on the website of the Institute of Industrial Relations Library at
http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/library/blg/corprsch.html#selectguide
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6. Government Accountability Project resources on corporate accountability
Jean Hutter from the Government Accountability Project writes:
" I'm a lobbyist for the Government Accountability Project that litigates and legislates
for whistleblower protection. In Sarbanes-Oxley Act, whistleblowers for at-will employers
received job protections for the first time. We are in the process of testing the boundaries
of the law through litigation and trying to get the word out to employees about their new
rights. Tom Devine, our legal director, is available to give briefings on new rights to
interested audiences and we'd appreciate you directing the public to our website at
www.whistleblower.org. Check out Corporate Accountability button on side bar. That
explains our program."
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7. Indictment of kmart executives available online
If you're interested in seeing the details of the government's case against two K mart
executives who were recently hit with criminal fraud charges as part of an investigation
of the company's accounting practices, the indictment can be found online at http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/kmart/usmontini22603ind.pdf>
-- Philip Mattera
pmattera@goodjobsfirst.org