When it comes to regulation, most businesses subscribe to the Russell Long school of thought: Don’t tax you, Don’t tax me, Tax the man behind that tree. They forget that regulations also serve to level the playing field. Worldcom’s bankruptcy was bad enough. But even worse, the entire telecom industry tried to match their business model in an attempt to match their illusionary profits. AT&T and Sprint would gladly exchange tighter accounting rules over the last decade for an honest look at Worldcom’s numbers over that same period.

[From WorldCom, an Amazing View of a Bloated Industry][1]. We now know in quantifiable, stupefying terms, just how much WorldCom overpaid for the telecommunications network it built.