90 percent of companies in the Standard & Poorβs 500-stock index reported non-GAAP results last yearI remember seeing this before 2008, remarking that this sort of thing is what Enron and Tyco did, not something a legitimate business should be interested in doing.
The psychological effects of this pressure have been profound. Minus the opportunities to make their own decisions and to see those positive effects of their efforts, their work has become personally meaningless, alienating, depersonalizing and psychologically damaging. As a result of this damage, American bureaucrats, although they may look like mild-mannered professionals, have become prone to sudden bouts of aggressive, sadistic behavior. They are unable to act out their repressed rage in any socially acceptable way other than by doling out punishments, fines, rejections, expulsions and other forms of objective, systemic violence.Sounds like a good companion to Mises' "Bureaucracy".