Alex Berenson

Enron had already collapsed and filed for bankruptcy protection by the beginning of 2002. But despite complaints from short sellers that corporations had used accounting gimmickry to inflate their profits, many investors thought the crisis at Enron was an isolated case.

Some companies use off-balance-sheet partnerships to raise money or to buy assets without ever telling their shareholders in their financial statements.

An attack on the scale of Sept. 11 would rock the markets and the economy.

In the short run, using militias might be the quickest and easiest way to improve order on Iraq\'s streets and uproot the terrorists and guerrillas who routinely attack American troops and civilian targets.

Publicly traded United States companies report sales and profits to investors every quarter.

Iraq is short on capital, short on electricity, and short on management expertise, but it does not lack economic enthusiasm.

Predicting the market is always tough.

Corporate executives often buy or sell shares in their companies, and stocks rarely rise or fall significantly when those transactions are reported.

After a generation of misrule under Mr. Hussein, who built a huge military infrastructure while neglecting civilian investment, and a dozen years of United Nations sanctions, Iraq\'s unemployment rate tops 50 percent.

Determining how many asbestos suits have been filed or how much companies have spent to resolve them is difficult. Cases are filed in state and federal courts, and many companies do not disclose their spending on settlements.

For a developing country, average long-run growth of 5 percent a year per capita is excellent, and 7 percent is stellar.

Mr. Hussein began building Ghazalia in the early 1980s as a home for army officers and other members of his Baath Party. Concrete mansions with pillars and domes are common in the southern half of the district.

As a public servant, William H. Webster has an impeccable resume.

Although not well known outside Wall Street, Freddie Mac and its corporate cousin, Fannie Mae, are two of the world\'s largest financial institutions and play a crucial role in the housing market.

In general, investors prefer companies to reward executives for producing recurring income, not one-time gains.

HealthWell is just one of several foundations that assist patients in making their insurance co-payments for expensive drugs.

The details of the personal expenses that executives put on the company tab often are not known because loopholes in federal disclosure rules let publicly traded companies generally avoid disclosing the perks they give executives along with pay and stock options.

At first glance, Martha Stewart, queen of artfully distressed home furnishings, might not seem to have much in common with Michael R. Milken, one-time king of junk bonds.

Benefits are rarely made public in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, where companies must report the pay and options that their five highest-paid executives receive.

Stocks in the United States plunged in 2002 amid fears of war and terrorism, a weak economy, rising oil prices and dozens of corporate scandals. It was the third consecutive annual decline, the first time that has happened in 60 years.

Insider trading is hard to prove. To be convicted, a person must have bought or sold a stock based on material information that is both unknown to the general public and likely to have had an important effect on a company\'s stock price.

At the end of 2000, most investors were optimistic that a return to quick gains could not be far off.

Investors have been too willing to buy stocks with strong reported earnings, even if they do not understand how the earnings are produced.

Most unfortunately, Enron\'s plunge into bankruptcy court also cost many of its rank-and-file employees their savings.

To economists, prices serve as crucial signals to producers and consumers. In a regulated market, the state sets prices high enough for private companies to cover their costs and earn a guaranteed profit for their investors. But in a deregulated market, prices should vary with demand and supply.

It\'s no secret that big institutional investors have a lot of advantages on Wall Street. They get the first chance to buy hot initial public offerings. They get to meet in person with companies\' managements.

The Fed\'s ability to raise and lower short-term interest rates is its primary control over the economy.

Of course, the discounting of future earnings should hurt all stocks. But it should hurt technology stocks more than others, because so many of them are valued at extremely high levels relative to their current earnings.

African runners regularly work out in the United States and Europe, and the International Olympic Committee sends some of the cash from the Games to Olympic committees in poor nations, which use the money to finance their own programs.

Macroeconomics is the analysis of the economy as a whole, an examination of overall supply and demand. At the broadest level, macroeconomists want to understand why some countries grow faster than others and which government policies can help growth.