www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14957765/site/newsweek
Wall Street Weaselwords Pretexting, backdating, market timing. So many of the phrases that catch on in the business world obscure what's really happening. This is one of those times, because the only way to grasp the essence of the Hewlett-Packard and "backdated" stock-options scandals is to speak in plain English instead of using euphemisms that obscure what's going on. As even non-English majors know, euphemisms-such as "advance to the rear" instead of "retreat"- are words designed to make ugly things sound less ugly. It's a term that's been around for years but became widely known only when news broke recently that people who call themselves pretexters had impersonated members of the HP board of directors to get their phone records. The information made its way to Patricia Dunn, HP's soon-to-be-former chairman of the board, who used it to out a leaker on the board. Pretexters lie to phone companies or credit-card companies or God knows who else by impersonating you so they can get unauthorized access to your personal records and sell the information. Every time I hear the word pretexting, I grit my remaining teeth. If we called this sleazy-and possibly illegal-practice lying, we might get less of it. Call me naive, but even some pretexters might try to find another way to make a buck if they had to tell their friends and families that they're professional liars.
Send Us Your Small Business My Turn Submission Then there's "backdating" stock options-more pig-perfuming. Companies cheated their shareholders by transferring wealth from them to employees (often top executives) -and in the process reported years of falsely high profits. Here's how: Employee options give you the right to buy shares at a fixed price for a fixed period, call it 10 years. These options were supposed to be priced at the stock's market value the day they were granted, to align optionholders' and shareholders' interests. Instead, dozens of companies granted the options at a lower, earlier price. That doesn't sound offensive-unless you happen to know how options work and how companies were supposed to account for them.
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